According to this article, the growth of government this past year was only 3%. Granted, that's about 3% more than it should be allowed to grow, but much less than what I recall in previous administrations, including RR.
The article goes on to say that the Budget President Bush just submitted to congress holds growth at less than 1% for the coming year.
Put a DIM in the whitehouse, and watch that number grow to 5, or even 8%. IMHO.
Bush held discretionary spending to a 3% increase. That is about 15% of the budget. The presciption drug thingie is not within that category, nor is defense spending for this exercise I don't think. How could it, given the costs of Iraq?