Viral Facebook post says Barack Obama has lowest spending record of any recent president

[happyslug]

11. So the two Presidents with lower numbers are Truman (Do to the end of WWII) and Hoover!!!!!

Last edited Wed May 23, 2012, 07:21 PM - Edit history (3)

President.....Fiscal year baseline.....Last fiscal year...Average percentage ............................................................................increase per year
Carter....................1977.....................1981.....................16.4
Nixon.....................1969.....................1975.....................13.5
Johnson.................1964.....................1969.....................11.0
George W. Bush......2001.....................2009.....................10.2
Reagan...................1981.....................1989.......................8.6
Kennedy.................1961.....................1964.......................7.1
George H.W. Bush...1989.....................1993.......................5.8
Clinton................... 1993.....................2001.......................4.0
Eisenhower..............1953.....................1961.......................3.6
Obama....................2009.....................2013.......................1.4

I notice the chart only goes back to Eisenhower, thus avoiding the severe drop in spending in the first years of Truman's Administration (and the huge cut back in spending due to the ending of WWII). Truman would have started in a high year (if NOT the highest year in real terms ever) of 1945, and then down till it started to go up after the start of the Korean War. Thus we have to go back to Truman to get a lower percentage AND if we dismiss that as the one time event that it was we have to go back to Hoover (FDR started low, due to how Hoover was handling the Depression but went super high due to WWII, thus FDR number would be high, but it is NOT reported on the Web site, Neither is Truman's nor Hoover's).