President Obama, speaking July 17 in San Antonio: "We've already cut a trillion dollars out of our federal budget."
This is a bogus claim. Mr. Obama may have reached some theoretical agreement on future reductions that have not yet actually gone into effect, but take a look at the historical tables on the White House's own Web site and they tell a different story. Federal outlays in 2008, President George W. Bush's last year, were $2.982 trillion. Under President Obama they increased to $3.5 trillion in 2009 and 2010 and to $3.6 trillion in 2011. They are estimated to be $3.8 trillion in 2012. If you add up the additional spending over the Bush 2008 baseline, it's an additional $2.4 trillion over four years. Only President Obama can manage to turn a $2.4 trillion increase in spending, or a $600 billion a year increase in spending, into a trillion dollar "cut." It's unbelievably misleading, even by the low standards of professional politicians.