US Federal Budget Deficit

What the chart shows is the favorable effect of the Bush tax cuts after enactment in 2003 and also the unfavorable effect of the Democrat takeover of Congress in the later years of the Bush administration. The collapse, in 2008, of the housing market and financial firms that were heavily invested in sub prime mortgages happened over the persistent warnings by the Bush administration which were stonewalled by Democrats Chris Dodd and Barney Frank in Congress.

If you look at this chart, you have to wonder what the Obama agenda is for him to want to let the Bush tax cuts expire during a recession. One word "CONTROL".