W was a Spendaholic
December 28th, 2009 | 1 Comment
George W. Bush: Biggest Spender Since LBJ : From the Cato Institute no less – Bush was no conservative when it came to spending.
Spending in Bush’s first year (FY2001) was $1.863 trillion, thus he presided over an 83-percent increase in overall federal spending, which includes defense, domestic, entitlements, and interest. Even without TARP and Fannie/Freddie, spending was up a huge 70 percent under Bush over eight years. By contrast, total spending under eight years of President Clinton increased just 32 percent. These are the overall increases in nominal dollars.
[…] Bush II was the biggest spender since LBJ. His spending increases were far larger than the three prior presidents.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:25 am (#)
Calculating spending increases over 8-year periods using nominal dollars = FAIL.
This should only ever be done using real value; nominal dollars are totally meaningless in this context.