jvbrewer said: My problem with this graph is that it misrepresents presidential decision-making as the creation of new initiatives. President Obama has chosen to continue many of President Bush’s military and tax policies, yet this is not indicated in the graphic.

markreagan said: Also important to note is 8 years of spending compared to three years. It’s really not fair to use projections for a fair comparison. I am not a Bush lover, or Obama lover … just saying … this is data manipulation…

» SFB says: We got a handful of interesting responses to this post, and just wanted to note them. (This one too.) This chart does note some interesting things — and it does put into perspective some interesting numbers, particularly comparing the various stimulus measures and such. But you do have to be aware that there are always caveats when dealing with charts like these — especially when comparing actual numbers to things that haven’t happened yet (projections vs. history). Who knows? Maybe in a year or two Obama will come up with some insane stimulus bigger than the Bush tax cuts, throwing this chart out of whack. Maybe health care will turn out to save money in the long run. Either way, it’s good to emphasize that there are dissenting opinions to the New York Times’ chart. — Ernie @ SFB