On October 8, Andrew Taylor at the Associated Press wrote that "(President Barack) Obama inherited a trillion-dollar-plus deficit after the 2008 financial crisis." In a NewsBusters post later that day, I pegged Obama's true inheritance at roughly $245 billion as of when he was first sworn into office, and at about $600 billion if projected over the full fiscal year. The actual deficit for fiscal 2009 came in at just over $1.4 trillion due to deficit-increasing actions by Obama and the Democrat-dominated Congress.
I guess we're supposed to forget about Taylor's egregious falsehood, because AP's national site has since replaced his story, perhaps more than one time. That's not happening.
Taylor's latest missive is dated October 15; yours truly will give that item its own separate treatment on Sunday. Now Taylor only contends that "Obama inherited an economy in recession." Fine, but his uncorrected October 8 story, complete with its "inherited a trillion-dollar-plus deficit" falsehood, is still present elsewhere, including at ABC News, the Boston Globe, US News (in shorter form), and many other sites. It should be (but won't be) corrected. Taylor obviously doesn't appreciate that an AP co-worker made his October 8 report look foolish way back in October 2008.
On October 15, 2008, AP economics writer Martin Crutsinger, covering the just-completed 2008 fiscal year, wrote the following:
Federal Budget Deficit At Record $454 Billion
The federal budget deficit soared to $454.8 billion in 2008 as a housing collapse and efforts to combat the economic slowdown pushed the tide of government red ink to the highest level in history.
The Bush administration said yesterday that the deficit for the budget year ended Sept. 30 was almost triple the $161.5 billion recorded in fiscal 2007.
It surpassed the previous yearly record of $413 billion set in 2004. Economists predicted a far worse number next year as the costs of the financial system rescue and the economic hard times hit the nation's balance sheet.
Some analysts said next year's deficit could easily top $700 billion, giving the next president a formidable challenge.
So why did the deficit go from a projected $700 blllion to its actualy $1.4 trillion? As I explained on October 8:
- The Obama Treasury Department retroactively booked roughly $150 billion in artificial accounting entries into the final four months of the Bush presidency, representing TARP losses which never took place, and which reduced deficits in subsequent years.
- After Obama took office, about $250 billion in new stimulus spending took place before the end of the fiscal year.
- There was a $150 billion further reduction in collections beyond what would have occurred if Obama hadn't clearly signaled his intention shortly after his election victory to make the rule of law whatever he and the left thought it should be, deepening the recession.
- After Obama took office, there was about $250 billion in other spending by federal departments finally freed from any kind of fiscal constraints.
The estimated amounts cited add up to $800 billion, while the difference between Crutsinger's reported estimate and the final actual was $700 billion. Regardless, we're well under the trillion-dollar-plus figure Taylor cited as what "Obama inherited."
Given that President Bush took no actions during the next three months which would have increased projected deficits beyond making the initial relatively small "loan" to General Motors — which Obama ran with to effectively nationalize the company for the next several years at a cost of many more billions — any increases from there, including the $1.2 trillion deficit the Congressional Budget Office projected in early January 2009, are traceable to Obama's egregious, confidence-shaking conduct during the 2-1/2 month presidential transition and actions taken by him and the Democratic Congress after he took office.
Thus, AP reporting from six years ago, along with other evidence from that time period, demonstrate that Obama did not "inherit" a "$1 trillion-dollar-plus deficit."
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
