[Leaning Right]

First off, the author of the article describes himself as “writing from the left.” So he's not your typical Forbes writer.

Second of all, he's discussing the percentage that spending INCREASED under Obama, not the spending itself.

So, yes, Obama is spending more, much more, but his spending increase percentage is relatively low. It's a very misleading argument.

Kinda like this:
Person “A” has a credit card debt of $100 and charged 20 more dollars. He increased his debt by 20%.

Person “B” has a credit card debt of $300 and charged 30 more dollars. He increased his debt by 10%.

So is Person B some sort of tightwad? I don't think so.

IMHO, the author just wanted to make Obama look good, and he twisted the data until he found something he liked.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Looking at the “actual spending” graph where it jumps sharply up during lame duck Bush, jumps further at the beginning of Obama, then comes slightly downward from a new, unprecedented plateau... that takes a lot of spin to make Obama look clean.