Bush Expands Government at Record Speed

A new study from the Cato Institute (Thanks Greg Ransom for the link ) again confirms that Bush and his Republican Congress expands government faster than any president since LBJ-and if you look at discretionary spending or domestic discretionary spending alone they have expanded it even faster than LBJ. Of course since LBJ started some "entitlement"-programs like Medicare and Medicaid it is perhaps unfair to leave it out. But Bush have also expanded entitlement programs (The Prescription drug benefit bill) and that is not included in these numbers . Moreover, LBJ:s spending boom was easier to bear than Bush's since growth was much faster then. During 1964-1968 average annual GDP growth was 5.2%, versus 2.5% in 2001-2005.