Obama: Republicans Are the Real Big Spenders

Republicans are trying to fool the country into believing that they are the party of fiscal responsibility, President Obama told a fundraiser yesterday. "I’m running to pay down our debt in a way that’s balanced and responsible. After inheriting a $1 trillion deficit, I signed $2 trillion of spending cuts into law,” he told donors in Denver. "My opponent won’t admit it, but it’s starting to appear in places, like real liberal outlets, like the Wall Street Journal," he quipped. "Since I’ve been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years. Think about that.”

Obama was referring to a report from Rex Nutting which found that under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest rate since the 1950s. The perception that Obama has presided over a federal spending spree exists largely because of decisions made by George W. Bush that affected the 2009 fiscal year, Nutting found. "It always goes up least under Democratic presidents," Obama said. "This other side, I don’t know how they’ve been bamboozling folks into thinking that they are the responsible, fiscally disciplined party. They run up these wild debts and then when we take over, we’ve got to clean it up." (More federal spending stories.)