Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
He set aside $787 billion in a stimulus for various sectors of the economy, and another $410 billion for homeowners.
However, only about half of the $787 billion has been applied for, so it has not all been spent and looks like it won't all be spent. About half of what has been applied for and used has been paid back as well.
And Obama has drastically cut spending in all other areas save education and national defense.
The budget Obama was allowed was $3.4 trillion; but it looks like he won't even reach that high. As a comparison, Bush's budget was $3.1 trillion last year, but Obama's budget includes the wars when Bush's budget does not. Obama's budget also had to deal with the $1.4 trillion deficit Bush left him from last year, while Bush's budget was only hampered by the $500 billion deficit left from the 2007 fiscal year.
Obama has called for spending so far of about $1.2 trillion. However, since only half of it was used, and half of that paid back, it is really closer to about $250 billion total spent so far.
Add-on:
Obama has severely cut spending.
Republicans are more than happy to tell you his budget is $3.6 trillion, which number 1 is an exaggeration. It is $3.4 trillion, which is already $200 billion less than what Republicans say it is. Again, Bush's final budget was $3.1 trillion, already within $300 billion of Obama's actual budget.
There are many reasons this is important. First up is deficits. I already pointed that out, but here is the math. Bush's budget last year was hampered by a $500 billion deficit he left himself from 2007; but Obama's current budget is hampered by a $1.4 trillion deficit Bush left him from last year. That is a $900 billion bigger hole that Bush put Obama in than he put himself in.
Obama was only ahead in spending by $300 billion; now Bush is ahead in spending by $600 billion.
Next up is the wars. While Obama's budget does include the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Bush's budget did not include either war. The estimated cost of the Iraq War is $10 billion a month, $120 billion a year. Afghanistan is $2 billion a month, $24 billion a year. Since we are working with the year, we will add $120 billion for Iraq and $24 billion for Afghanistan to Bush's total; to make it fair and hold him to the same standard Obama is being held to. That is $144 billion that needs to be added to Bush's total.
Bush was ahead in spending by $600 billion; it is now $744 billion.
And finally, Bush's bailout. Obama's bailout is already in his budget, so does not need to be added again. Republicans played some games with Bush's bailout, however.
When Bush's bailout first got up for a vote, it was $700 billion. It was soundly defeated in the House of Representatives by the House Republicans. They were hailed as Conservative heroes.
So the authors of the bill went back and added $150 billion in Republican pork spending to the bill to attract those Republicans. The bill was now $850 billion, and guess who voted for it? That's right, the House Republicans.
The original $700 billion Bush asked for was given to him and his Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson. But they felt they could not spend it all in the little time they had left; so they hit upon a plan in which they would split the money in half, keep $350 billion and give the other $350 billion to Obama's team.
Bush and Paulson then promptly lost their own half by not having a tracking system in place. It is somewhere in the economy, but no one can figure out where. This is where Rush and Hannity took over.
Because we did not find out Bush had lost the money until after Obama got to office, they tried to blame Obama for that lost $350 billion. On top of that, they also tried to blame Obama for that $150 billion in Republican pork spending. While it was approved during Bush's term by Republicans in Congress, it was not spent until Obama's term. Rush used that to try and blame that spending on Obama.
That is $500 billion that was not counted against Bush when it should have been. He was ahead in spending by $744 billion; when you add that money back to him it now goes to $1.244 trillion more than what Obama is spending. But that $500 billion was also unfairly counted against Obama, and now must be taken away.
So when you take it away, Bush outspent Obama by $1.744 trillion. That means that Obama has managed to cut spending by $1,744,000,000,000. Obama has cut Bush's spending by nearly $2 trillion.
