One more time -- Is Obama spending binge a myth?

God help me, I'm going to wade into the Obama spending myth debate again.

For those who have not followed this story, Rex Nutting, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch.com, wrote a column recently saying that the Obama spending binge never happened.

His analysis (and my presentation of it on this blog) was quickly hit with a barrage of criticism. The problem is that the TARP money from the 2009 fiscal year distorts the figures.

And yet ...

The idea that the idea that Obama is spending recklessly still seems to be worthy of questioning. The chart below shows inflation-adusted federal spending per capita. It seems to indicate that, as Nutting asserted, in the last two years, the Obama administration has sharply cut back.

The numbers are based on the Federal Reserve's data, which is collected in January, September and May -- in that order. (The months are listed on the bottom line.) So each section on the blue line represents spending compared to one year prior.

I'm no Obama apologist, so I'd  welcome any comments or criticisms of this graph:

(Source: Federal Reserve Economic Data)