Pelosi Lies Like an Antique, But Newly Stretched, Rug

Nancy Pelosi has always excelled in obfuscation, but in this case she has surpassed herself:

“When President Obama stood on the steps on the Capitol eight years from next week, the [budget] deficit was $1.4 trillion — one year deficit,” she said. “It’s reduced by 70 percent in his administration.

First of all, FY09 was a disaster, and a single year of Deciding the blame for the FY2009 budget deficit is always hazy, but the bottom line is this: when President Obama stood on the steps on the Capitol eight years ago, the CBO projected the deficit at $1.2 trillion. So she’s a little high.

But it gets more ridiculous. Bush proposed a budget of 3.16 trillion, but the Democrats (led by Reid and Pelosi) pushed through a $400 billion increase, giving a budget of $3.54 trillion. So Bush’s share of the deficit is now down to $800 billion.

The way I count it though, at the beginning of FY09, the deficit was projected to be $438 billion. That’s the budget Bush wanted. So here’s my final tally, which I think is accurate and fair:

Bush’s Deficit: $440 billion

Pelosi’s Budget Deficit (signed by Obama): $430 billion

The Recession: the balance (~$540 billion)

If you want to assign the recession money to Bush or Obama, you’d have to give Obama $200 billion and Bush the remainder. That would give Bush $780 billion and President Obama (and Reid and Pelosi) $630 billion for FY09.

Here’s a great graphic that talks more about these Pelosi-esque distortions of the truth.

She has a tremendous amount of gall assigning responsibility for the Omnibus spending bill to Bush, when that was her baby all along.