The New York Times had this chart on display as part of a Sunday opinion column on the source of the federal budget deficit:
At $1.44 trillion to $5.07 trillion – a difference of $3.63 trillion – President Obama's policies have been far less expensive than that of his predecessor, George W. Bush. By and large, our large deficits owe most of their existence to policies pursued by President Bush – his tax cuts on middle- and high-income earners, and his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This information isn't new, but it is a nice reminder that right-wing rhetoric notwithstanding, Obama hasn't been responsible for an unprecedented rash of spending, and we won't reduce the deficit by cutting programs that help lower-income people.
