A lot of the spending in the past 6-7 years was directly related to 9/11. If you knew of a better way around that event, perhaps you should run for president.
Yes, but there have been endless studies by Heritage and Cato showing that spending outside of national defense is still way, way up, and there are the new entitlements, etc. The fact is that W and the GOP congress were massive big government spenders. That is why the GOP is hurting now.