The Second Presidential Debate: Romney's Big Lies Concerning The Federal Budget Deficit

Make no mistake, Mitt Romney lied when he said President Obama presided over four straight budget deficits of over $1 trillion.  The President has had only three fiscal budget years since he was elected President and his fourth fiscal budget year began October 1, 2012 and will end September 30, 2013.  Obama's first fiscal budget year began October 1, 2009.

It was George W. Bush's record single year budget deficit of $1.42 trillion that ended September 30, 2009 that Romney is trying to pass onto Obama and was the first ever single year fiscal budget deficit over a trillion dollars. The President's record for his first three fiscal year budgets came in with the following deficits:  First fiscal year ending September 30, 2010 $1.29 trillion.  The second year fiscal budget ending September 30, 2011 $1.2 trillion.  The third fiscal year budget ending September 30, 2012 $1.1 trillion.  See Note 1 below.

The numbers show that even though Bush inherited a record economy and balanced budgets from the Clinton administration, Obama did a better job at controlling deficit spending than Bush even though Bush bequeathed to Obama the second great republican depression and the first ever single year trillion dollar budget deficit.  Bush, like his father and Reagan never balanced one one federal budget on his watch.

Romney also lied when he said Obama doubled the federal deficit.  The numbers above show that was a blatant lie.  Romney has become a serial liar concerning many issues though out this campaign, most of which has already been exposed.  Romney is a man that can not be trusted with the truth or run the nations business.  He has had more than enough time to tell the American people what he would cut to pay for his $5 trillion tax cut and refused to do so until after the election.  This is a man who is afraid of the truth.

The way to stop the blatant lies of Romney and other republicans is to turn them off at the ballot box.  Hopefully, the people will get the message.

Note 1:    The deficit number shown above for Obama's third fiscal year budget that ended 9/30/12 was taken from a report from the Treasury Department to the Associated Press.  The CBO will publish the final number in its official reports when ready.