Deficit approved by Obama as a senator

It sure is easy to forget Democrats have controlled Congress since 2006, especially with the incessant reference to Bush’s deficit in many media stories. A lot of people swallow this nonsense, so here are a few facts .

Budgets come from Congress not the president and the Democrats controlled those bodies since January 2007, granted they had to deal with Bush’s budget in 2007, but this was the lowest in deficit spending in five years and the fourth year straight for a decline in deficit spending under Bush. Obama himself voted for these budgets as a senator, so he inherited it from himself.

For the 2009 budget, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelossi bypassed Bush entirely by passing “continuing resolutions” that kept government running until Obama took office and could sign an enormous omnibus bill and then the stimulus bill, to fund their liberal vision.

Bottom line is Obama inherited a deficit that he had voted for as senator, then signed as president to expand that deficit four times over since January 2009. Good grief

BRUCE JOHNSON

Sandpoint