regarding your #78 post:
The top 5 biggest spending presidents 1964-2005:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-0510-26.pdf
“...All presidents presided over net increases in spending overall, though some were bigger spenders than others. As it turns out, George W. Bush is one of the biggest spenders of them all. In fact, he is an even bigger spender than Lyndon B. Johnson in terms of discretionary spending.
Comparing the Presidents
The increase in discretionary spending—that is, all nonentitlement programs—in Bush’s first term was 48.5 percent in nominal terms. That’s more than twice as large as the increase in discretionary spending during Clinton’s entire two terms (21.6 percent), and just higher than Lyndon Johnson’s entire discretionary spending spree (48.3 percent).
A more accurate comparison accounts for how long each president served in office and adjusts for inflation. To adjust for the varying tenures of each president, growth rates in average annual terms should be used for ranking purposes.
The results of adjusting the budget trends for inflation and the length of time in office are shown in the figure to the right. It compares the top five biggest spending presidents in terms of nonentitlement spending.
Bush’s record looks even worse by this standard. His spending rate is much higher than Lyndon Johnson’s. In other words, Bush has expanded federal nonentitlement programs in his first term almost twice as fast each year as Lyndon Johnson did during his entire presidency...”
http://www.cato.org/pubs/tbb/tbb-0510-26.pdf
.
Gee, I might think that President Bush was fighting a war or something?!!
[BTW: What about adjusting for size and percentage of GDP?]