As the AP reports, it actually was him — and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years — who crafted a budget so out of balance.

As a presidential candidate and president-elect,Obama backed the twilight Bush-era stimulus plan that made the deficit deeper, all before he took over and promoted spending plans that have made it much deeper still.

Remember, Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama's last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush's final months — a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger. Now, as President, it has taken Obama just 100 days to quadruple the deficit:The facts are these:

• Obama's proposed budget doubles the national debt.
• Gross domestic product decreased at an annual rate of 6.1% in the first three months of 2009- a historic low for a new president.
• Wednesday’s headline data were worse than expected, as analysts had predicted a 4.7% contraction.
• Despite claiming the creation of 150,000 new jobs, unemployement jumped to 8.5% in March - the highest unemployment rate since 1983.

It's no wonder then that Obama's assertion that his proposed budget "will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term" is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating.

Overall, the President's economic policies represent a sharp break from those that created the most prosperous 25-year period in American economic history. Instead, his policies take the frightening direction of putting politicians in charge of an increasing portion of the economy. If this is Obama's idea of a "New Foundation" for growth, America's economy could still be in for a long and difficult road.