Federal Spending, Taxes, and Deficits Are Lower Today Than When Obama Took Office — This is an inconvenient truth. It is inconvenient for Mitt Romney that spending, taxes, and the deficit are all lower today than when President Obama took office. It is inconvenient for liberals (not to mention, really inconvenient for the unemployed) that we’ve been overly aggressive in paring down our deficits even with high unemployment and huge cuts to state and local government. – The Atlantic