President #1

President #2

President #3

The hint that solves the puzzle: They're in chronological order. It goes Reagan, Bush, Obama. Going by federal expenditures (and note these are nominal figures), it would seem that if Obama's a socialist, Ronald Reagan is Karl Marx with an ICBM.

The hint that solves the puzzle: They're in chronological order. It goes Reagan, Bush, Obama. Going by federal expenditures (and note these are nominal figures), it would seem that if Obama's a socialist, Ronald Reagan is Karl Marx with an ICBM.

The graph tells a simple story that I've recounted before . For all the talk you hear about Obama's historic spree, government spending actually hasn't increased so dramatically under this president. The stimulus was big, but it's over. It's been replaced by, if not austerity (which has struck our states and cities) then a hard correction to the center.Here's another way to tell the story ... It's a quiz! I present to you the first three years in spending for three recent presidents: Barack Obama, George Bush, and Ronald Reagan. To make it a game, I've removed their names and indexed the spending increases to their first month of office. And I've replaced the dates with integers from 1-10 so you can't guess by looking at the years.Can you guess which president is which?Let me anticipate some of your objections before you make them. (1)This is all true, but expanding defense was Reagan's choice, and a dollar spent, on no matter what, is a dollar taxed or borrowed. (2)Yes, but he has neither inflation nor a Great Recession. (3)There is a time for government cuts, but it's not when you have 9 percent unemployment and your interest rates are below 2%. (4). It's fair to measure government size by its total involvement in people's lives, but that deserves a longer post. (5)But they haven't happened yet, so they're not part of the president's record.Maybe I missed some objections -- I'm sure you'll let me know -- and I'll answer in the comment section.But the bottom line is that it is really, truly time for the myth about Big Spender Obama to die. If anything, it is remarkable that, after a recession and a private sector implosion, the public sector expanded less under this administration than it did under Bush or Reagan, especially when you consider the government cuts made at the state and local levels Source: Reuters