Which is why Obama made a critical error in not driving home the fact that the recession was a direct result of decades of GOP economic policy. (With a bit of help from the Clinton economic team which is also known as the Obama economic team.) Because the White House wanted to play nice, not enough people appreciate why the economy is where it's at. As you might expect, the GOP was less enthusiastic about playing nice and has done a good, though dishonest job of blaming everything on Obama.
Payment for unemployment compensation nearly tripled, while spending for Medicaid, food aid and other income assistance programs has also grown.
The reason: The revenue code and the nearly two-thirds of the $3.8 trillion budget that pays benefits like Social Security and Medicare are on cruise control, automatically levying taxes and issuing payments from one year to the next.
As the economy weakens—as it has since the worst recession in decades began in December 2007—the government collects less revenue from people and companies that are earning less, and pays benefits to more Americans as the number of poor and unemployed swells.
"This recession has been unusually deep and had an unusually large impact on budget deficits," said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates fiscal constraint. "It far outweighs any policy choices the president and Congress make. It's devastating."
