WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.
“He’s a big government guy,” said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group.
The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group.
“He’s a big spender,” Keating said. “No question about it.”
Take 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, Slivinski calculates.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Heeyyyyy Big Spender
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2 comments:
If I were to "take almost any yardstick," I'd probably break it... with enough restraint, I might merely break it in my hands.
I remember reading late in Bush's first term that his contribution to the national debt exceeded that of ALL previous presidents... combined.
Conservative MFA. Any liberal... any one of us... would easily be more fiscally responsible than these jokers.
Where will the money he has spent come from? His blithering about Democrats and SCHIP makes no sense if he's not held to the same account.
Where the hell are you going to get the money for your sinkhole quagmire wars, Georgie? Or did you get a C in Econ, too?
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