President Obama and Vice President Biden are currently playing the role of traveling snake-oil salesmen, peddling their latest wares in the form of yet another so-called stimulus bill. At the heart of their pitch are claims that would have you believe that up is down, black is white, and increased government spending is “austerity”.
In fairness, I do not know if the President has used that word, but both he and the Vice President are currently on the campaign trail, busy painting a picture of a strapped government that just isn’t spending like it used to. It’s a pure fantasy.
As we’ve warned in the past, all this talk of cuts is based on dishonest Washington math, which considers an increase in spending to be a “cut” simply if it is less than originally planned or asked for. In reality, there has been no cut at all: spending for 2011 increased by almost 5% from 2010, and is now up 93% over the last 10 years.
It’s too bad, because as this CF&P video shows, even simply restraining the growth of spending has worked well to reduce deficits where it has been tried:
