“John, it’s been your president, who you said you agreed with 90 percent of the time, who presided over this increase in spending, this orgy of spending, and enormous deficits. And you voted for almost all of his budgets. So to stand here after eight years and say that you’re going to lead on controlling spending and, you know, balancing our tax cuts so that they help middle-class families, when over the last eight years that hasn’t happened, I think just is, you know, kind of hard to swallow.”

— Barack Obama, debate with John McCain, University of Mississippi, 2008.09.26

U.S. Budget Deficit Hit Record $1.4 Trillion in 2009

“The federal budget deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion for the 2009 fiscal year that ended last week, congressional analysts said Wednesday.”