Keith Hennesey does a fair job of fisking President Obama's Washington Post editorial in which Obama tries to put a happy face on what his administration has done thus far to combat the recession. Hennesy included a chart by Don Marron that graphically takes Obama to task on one of his favorite claims, namely:

Nearly six months ago, my administration took office amid the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Now Obama's claim is certainly close to being true, but by 1/10th of a percent, it isn't quite there. And, it could be argued, the past 6 months of this administration's policies has moved it closer to being what he claims than it was when he took office.

But when he talks about the gloom and doom of the "most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression", remember this chart. He and the Democrats are and have been using that claim as a means of justifying all sorts of deficit spending. It is also the means to justify health care reform (claim: health care spending is going to "bankrupt us") and cap-and-trade (claim: the route to fiscal health is "green jobs" and "green industry").

The point here is to understand how overplayed the "most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression" really is. Yeah, it's a nasty one, but in comparison to the Great Depression it simply doesn't compare. In fact, it isn't even close.

UPDATE: Here's a perfect example of an exaggerated and, naturally, unfalsifiable claim by a politician.

[Crossposted at QandO]