The President Claims He Cut Spending By $1 Trillion Plus in 2011 - Not True

The big fight over the fiscal cliff deal was that if the president wanted more revenue through tax hikes the GOP wanted a like amount in spending cuts. That didn't happen. The president says he and the Democrats will address the cuts at a later date. (Warning: 'a later date' in Dem code is it's not going to happen.) The fight over spending cuts is just around the corner. The president wants a blank check on raising the debt ceiling, giving him carte blanche to spend however much he wants with no oversight. The House has fiscal responsibility over the debt ceiling and and the GOP, after being ambushed over the fiscal cliff deal, is in no mood to give Mr. Obama a blank check on the debt ceiling. The president will have to agree to major spending cuts before the House approves any increase in the ceiling. Rep. John Boehner, roughed up during the cliff deal and newly re-elected to another term as Speaker of the House, says there will be no one-on-one negotiations this time over spending cuts. The full House will be involved. 

House Speaker John Boehner

So, the fight over cuts will be fierce as Obama never has reduced the deficit, has no plans to do so, and the fiscal cliff bill doesn't address the issue. He said he did reduce the debt which is not true.
Click for video:Obama Lies About Reducing The Debt

(CNSNews.com) - Appearing on NBCs “Meet the Press” on Sunday, President Barack Obama said that he cut spending by more than $1 trillion in 2011. However, the White House Office of Management and Budget says that federal spending increased by $147 billion from fiscal 2010 to fiscal 2011.


Host David Gregory asked Obama: “Well, you talk about dysfunction in Washington. You signed this legislation setting up the fiscal cliff 17 months ago. How accountable are you for the fact that Washington can't get anything done and that we are at this deadline again?”

The president on Meet The Press

Obama responded: "Well, I have to tell you, David, if you look at my track record over the last two years, I cut spending by over a trillion dollars in 2011.
“I campaigned on the promise of being willing to reduce the deficit in a serious way, in a balanced approach of spending cuts and tax increases on the wealthy while keeping middle class taxes low,” Obama continued.
“I put forward a very specific proposal to do that," he said. "I negotiated with Speaker Boehner in good faith and moved more than halfway in order to achieve a grand bargain. I offered over a trillion dollars in additional spending cuts so that we would have two dollars of spending cuts for every one dollar of increased revenue. I think anybody objectively who's looked at this would say that, you know, we have put forward not only a sensible deal but one that has the support of the majority of the American people, including close to half of Republicans.”

According to the White House Office of Management and Budget, federal spending was not cut by $1 trillion in 2011. In fact, in fiscal 2010, federal spending was $3,456,213,000,000. In fiscal 2011, federal spending was $3,603,213,000,000. That was an increase of $147 billion.
While President Obama did not cut federal spending by $1 trillion in 2011, he did increase the debt by more than $1 trillion in that fiscal year. In fiscal 2011, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the federal deficit was $1,299,595,000,000. That was up from a deficit of $1,293,489,000,000 in fiscal 2010.


By Terence P. Jeffrey for CNSNews.com

December 30, 2012

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