Meet President Obama 2.0.

WSJ:

Meet President Obama 2.0. Unlike the 2009 version, this 2010 update isn’t the spender who has sent the federal deficit to levels unseen since World War II. This new fellow is a fiscal conservative, and Americans will see this major new talent perform tonight as he delivers his State of the Union address.

Whether or not Americans choose to believe him, there’s no denying the fiscal reality created by the rollout version of President Obama last year, as detailed in the Congressional Budget Office report released yesterday. For the second year in a row, fiscal 2010 will see a trillion-dollar deficit—an estimated $1.35 trillion, or 9.2% of GDP, which is down slightly from last year’s post-World War II record of 9.9%.

Mr. Obama did inherit a recession, which is partly responsible for this ocean of red ink. The slow pace of economic recovery has contributed to a collapse in revenues, down to 14.8% of GDP in 2009 and an estimated 14.9% this year. That’s well below the modern historical average of about 18.1%, and it is a reminder that economic growth is the most important contributor to smaller deficits. Had last year’s “stimulus” worked half as well as the White House advertised, these deficits wouldn’t be as large.

But as the nearby chart shows, Mr. Obama’s major contribution to deficits has been a record spending spree.

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