Change in spending does not come close to being what people have in mind for “overspending”.

For example, suppose that President Bush had increased government spending by 30% in his final year. If the current president had merely left it at that level, there would be 0% increase in spending but declaring him to be the highest spending president would be very reasonable.

(And again, ignores tax issues.)

Job creation without government spending, inflation, or trade barriers: http://jobcreationplan.blogspot.com/

If you, out of politeness, I assume, neglect the fact that we have a media that has treated “austerity economics” as the definitive solution, then you’re missing the cause of the public’s miseducation.

The Obama administration– and, perhaps, you as a former member of its economic team– haven’t done a good enough job educating people. I say that as a fan of yours; but truth to power and all that.

I’m also a fan of the President. But I’m disappointed in him in many ways– he has gone out of his way to be accommodationist to the opposition, only recently turning to be an aggressive opponent of theirs. Part of that accommodation was his pivot in 2010 or thereabouts towards deficit reduction, as chronicled by Krugman and others.

Better to have set himself up, then, as the champion of fixing the economy through additional and better stimulus. To have reinstated Glass-Steagall. To have insisted on cleaner and better cleanup of the foreclosure situation.

It is too late now to not cause the damage of the past two years; it may be too late to prevent damage in the next few. It may also be too late for him to successfully win a second term.