joeschmoepolitico

Obama vs. McCain on Fiscal Responsibility

From 2001 through 2007, total government spending increased a whopping 47 percent, from $1.86 to $2.73 trillion. It didn't do that all at once, but rather, grew each year an average of 6.2 percent.

The worst year during that time period for government growth was 2002, when it increased 7.9 percent. The best was, perhaps surprisingly, 2007, the last year that was mostly baked by the Republicans. Government spending only advanced 2.8 percent that year. Republicans tried to reform themselves, but did too little too late.

How did the Democrats do? Spending has advanced this year an astronomical 8.3 percent, to $2.96 trillion, exceeding even the worst of the Bush years. Total spending this year was more than a trillion dollars higher than it was when Bush took office in January 2001, and more than $200 billion of that increase was accomplished in just the last year.