Posted by Jonathan Adler:
Hey There Big Spender:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_10_21-2007_10_27.shtml#1193280272
Is President George W. Bush the most spendthrift president in recent
memory, if not all time? It sure seems that way. Discretionary federal
spending has [1]increased more rapidly under President George W. Bush
than any other post-WWII president.
ake almost any yardstick and Bush generally exceeds the spending of
his predecessors.
When adjusted for inflation, discretionary spending � or budget
items that Congress and the president can control, including
defense and domestic programs, but not entitlements such as Social
Security and Medicare � shot up at an average annual rate of 5.3
percent during Bush�s first six years, [the Cato Institute's
Steven] Slivinski calculates.
That tops the 4.6 percent annual rate Johnson logged during his
1963-69 presidency. By these standards, Ronald Reagan was a
tightwad; discretionary spending grew by only 1.9 percent a year on
his watch.
Discretionary spending went up in Bush's first term by 48.5
percent, not adjusted for inflation, more than twice as much as
Bill Clinton did (21.6 percent) in two full terms, Slivinski
reports.
Of course defense and homeland security account for a decent share of
the increase, but spending rose elsewhere as well. And while Bush did
seek some entitlement reform, he also pushed a new entitlement in the
form of the prescription drug bill.
The President's defenders point to Congress' voracious appetite as the
cause of the spending increase, but Congress could not spend this much
alone. President Bush enabled Congress' fiscal excesses by refusing to
veto ever-increasing spending bills -- many of which were passed by a
Republican Congress -- while the administration simultaneously pushed
for more federal spending on education, agriculture, and other items.
Even if Bush gets veto-happy in his last 15 months in office, he'll
still be remembered as a big-spending President -- and rightly so.
References
1. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/20767.html
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