Bush The Big Spender? Check Again
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Budget Policy: An oft-heard criticism leveled at President Bush is that he’s a “record spender.” And because it’s repeated by those at both ends of the political spectrum, it sounds right. But that doesn’t mean it is right.
Bush is “arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ,” says a story from McClatchy Newspapers on the president’s fiscal record. Pretty tough words, given that LBJ conducted both a war in Vietnam and a War on Poverty simultaneously, racking up huge gains in spending over his term and a half in office.
The McClatchy piece says discretionary spending under Bush has risen an inflation-adjusted 5.3% in his first six years, outstripping the 4.6% under Johnson — and way above President Reagan’s meager 1.9%. By “almost any yardstick,” the article continues, Bush “generally exceeds the spending of his predecessors.”
“Any yardstick,” that is, except the most important of all — spending as a share of GDP. On this, Bush is actually lower than most of his predecessors. Spending as a share of GDP is the most important measure of the size of government, since it measures what government actually takes from the national economy.
In the first six years of his term, including the Office of Management and Budget’s most current estimate for 2007, Bush spent, on average, 20% of GDP.
Was that a lot? Not really. As the chart shows, it puts him in the middle of the presidential pack. Since Johnson took office in late 1963, spending as a share of GDP has averaged 20.4%. And, ironically, spending under LBJ was the lowest.
So rather than a “record” spender, as some claim, Bush is actually below average. Indeed, he’s within statistical spitting distance of President Clinton, who on average spent 19.6% of GDP.[...]
If you really want to worry, look long-term. Bush has tried to do something about runaway entitlements but has gotten no help. As GAO chief David Walker has noted, $50.5 trillion in entitlement spending looms in the next few decades — with no way to pay for it.
Read the whole thing.
As usual, the ongoing propaganda is simply wrong.
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