A quick look back at Obama's first term

“Those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.” — Barack Hussein Obama, Inaugural Address January 20, 2009

There were many things that were disappointing about President Obama’s first term.

The good folks at Reason TV take a look at some of the disappointments in a new video retrospective of Obama’s rhetoric versus reality including:

Trillion dollar deficits.
Obama’s failure to submit a budget on time.
The Senate’s failure to pass a budget in nearly four years.
Irresponsible spending.
Failed stimulus.
Crony capitalism like Solyndra.
Failure to keep the ObamaCare transparency promise.
Failure to keep his promise to reform immigration during his first year.

You can watch the video below:

There was much to bedisappointed about during Obama’s first term. But the most disappointing thing about Obama’s first term was the irresponsible and out of control spending.

Today, the national debt is $16,432,631,489,854.70. It was $10,626,877,048,913.08 when Obama became president. That is an increase of more than a 5.8 trillion dollars during Obama’s first term.

In 2004, when the deficit was $413 billion and the national debt was $7,419,244,676,835.15 or $7.4 trillion, Obama said the “monstrous federal deficit” was an “enormous problem.” On July 3, 2008, presidential candidate Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was “irresponsible” and “unpatriotic.” Nevertheless, President Obama added more than $5.8 trillion to the national debt in four years.

President Obama has promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first time at least five times:

February 23, 2009: Obama Pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
February 24, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
May 26, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office
December 8, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
February 14, 2011: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.

Despite his promises to cut the deficit in half by the end of his “first” term, Obama has racked up the largest deficits in U.S. history:

FY2009: The federal budget deficit was $1.413 trillion, the highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
FY2011: The federal budget deficit was $1.299 trillion, the second highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
FY2010: The federal budget deficit was $1.294 trillion, the third highest in U.S. history. (“Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,” Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
FY2012 The federal budget deficit was $1.090 trillion, the fourth highest in U.S. history. (“An Analysis of the President’s 2013 Budget,” Congressional Budget Office, 10/5/12)

You shouldn’t be shocked by Obama’s failure to reduce the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. He did warn us there would be “trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.”

The president and his Obamacrats need to get serious about the irresponsible spending. Obama has not submitted a single budget on time. And when Obama’s budgets are submitted they are so “unserious” that for the last two years they haven’t even received a single vote in the Democrat-controlled Senate. And the Senate hasn’t passed a budget in 1,365 days, almost four years. Congress has failed to adequately address the problem by continuing raise the debt limit and borrow more and more until we now have a $16.4 trillion national debt. Can we continue down this road and avoid bankruptcy?