quickhits:

Obama’s ‘spending spree’: the lie the media lets Republicans get away with.

MarketWatch:

Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.

As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”

Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.

But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

Doubt it? Here ya go:

Adding insult to injury is that the second-most thrifty president during that period was Bill Clinton.

Republicans lie — completely without shame — and the media just lets them get away with it. You wingnuts can stop whining about the “lamestream media” now. You’re not victims, you’re co-conspirators.

Even if the media reported this, it would make little difference. Studies have shown that when people are presented with facts contrary to their preexisting beliefs they just double down on the false beliefs.