Is It Tax And Spend Or Spend And Tax?

We can never keep it straight. McClatchy (10.24.07):

"George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ."

Bush is the biggest spender since LBJ

"'He’s a big government guy,' said Stephen Slivinski, the director of budget studies at Cato Institute, a libertarian research group."

"The numbers are clear, credible and conclusive, added David Keating, the executive director of the Club for Growth, a budget-watchdog group."

The spending has been for more than Iraq, Afghanistan and homeland security. It includes education spending (as in No Child Left Behind), the 2002 farm bill, the 2003 Medicare prescription drug benefit ("the biggest single expansion in the program’s history — whose 10-year costs are estimated at more than $700 billion"), and the 2005 highway bill.

See if you can make any sense out of this: "The White House counters by noting that Bush took office as the country was heading into a recession, then reeled from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. 'This president had to overcome some things that required additional spending,' said Sean Kevelighan, a White House budget office spokesman."

We can't.

But it's not all George's fault. Some blame the spending spree on "a ravenous Congress that was eager to show constituents how generous it could be." Which may be true, but as the article appropriately notes, "Republicans ran that Congress until January [2007, and second,] Bush never vetoed a single GOP spending bill."