Did Obama Really Make Government Bigger?

photo: theeconomiccollapseblog.com

(CNN Money) By Tammy Luhby - President Obama = big government. Or so say the Republican presidential candidates. Newt Gingrich has labeled him the "food stamp president" for expanding entitlements, while Mitt Romney has said the size of the federal government has "exploded" under Obama.

By many measures, the federal government has indeed grown during Obama's tenure. Spending as a share of the economy has gone up. The number of federal employees has risen. More Americans are relying on federal assistance.

But not all of those things were the president's doing.

CNNMoney takes a look at the facts.

Spending: Government spending as a share of the economy has hovered around 24% during the Obama administration, several percentage points higher than under President Bush, according to Congressional Budget Office data. It's also elevated from the historical average of 20.7% over the past 40 years.

Much of that increase has come from mandatory spending, including Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid. Those programs have expanded mostly because of the recession, which has prompted more people to apply for Medicaid and Social Security, as well as the growth in people hitting retirement age.

Read full story at CNN Money...