[annyokie]

The Cato Institute is full of Chicken Littles.

[Reagan Man]

The argument over PresBush`s excessive spending centers mainly around the non-defense/non-HSD discretionary spending portion of his first four budgets, 2002 to 2005

From the Office of Management and Budget: Budget Outlays for Reagan (81-85), Clinton (93-97), Bush43 (01-05). Reagan had the largest increases in total discretionary spending and for good reason. Reagan had to rebuild the military and that was expensive. But in non-defense/non-HSD portion of discretionary spending, PresBush is the winner. Btw, notice the huge drop in defense spending under der schlickmeister.

Discretionary Spending
81-85: +35.1%
93-97: +14.8%
01-05: +30.9%

Defense Spending
81-85: +73.9%
93-97: -7.1%
01-05: +33.9%

Non-Defense/Non-HSD Discretionary Spending
81-85: +8.7%
93-97: +11.7%
01-05: +20.1%