Bush is LBJ Caliber Spendthrift - Spending more than LBJ

[RamboLiberal]

At least a lot of LBJ's non-defense spending were for good programs. Good ammo to give to your wingnut relatives, friends and co-workers.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/23/0233/66309

The right-wing American Enterprise Institute takes a look at presidential spending, both discretionary and total, and determines determines that Reagan was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Par for the course for that organization. But in an unexplored corner of their numbers we find that -- drum roll please -- Bush is an LBJ-caliber spendthrift.

The Bush apologists like to point to the War on Terror to justify Bush's lack of budget control. But the graph above helpfully breaks out the non-defense discretionary spending, and it's ugly. That's a 25.3 percent increase over Clinton's last budget.

And that's not even including the hundreds of billions of dollars pissed away in Iraq. His second term, with the hurricane reconstructions, doesn't promise to fare much better. Congressional Republicans aren't about to surrender their pork for the nation's greater good. And Bush will continue to do nothing about the runaway spending, as he's done for the last four years and counting.

http://www.dailykos.com/

Those figures come by way of the American Enterprise Institute's Veronique de Rugy, who has calculated that George W. Bush has boosted total inflation-adjusted discretionary spending in his first term by 35.1 percent. To put that in context, chew on this: LBJ--the Texas legend who created the Great Society and, for all intents and purposes, the Vietnam War--only boosted discretionary spending 33.4 percent. What's more, the gap between Bush and LBJ will only grow. De Rugy notes that the final outlays for fiscal year 2005 (the last budget signed in Bush's first term) aren't in yet. As a result, she has to use mid-session review numbers, which are invariably smaller than the final amounts. And, she says, the number for FY2005 "does not take under consideration the numerous supplemental passed this year, and the new spending triggered by the Katrina disaster."

AEI Charts.

http://www.aei.org/publications/pubID.20675/pub_detail.asp

Speaking of LBJ, I'd love to hear what his ghost would say to Chimpy. H'mm maybe that's what drove Chimpy to the bottle.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

1. On "The News Hour" tonight,

I thought I heard David Brooks say GWB has spent even MORE than LBJ.

He said "...twice as much as Clinton, and far more than LBJ," and none of it on social programs, which made up a lot of Johnson's spending - the Great Society, and all those grand things.

They agreed that it's the result of a Republican President with a likewise Congress, all of them completely lacking discipline and (this is my interjection) morals.

[RamboLiberal]

2. You're right - I've just changed the heading after I added some

more info. Thanks.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

3. I worked for a man

who had been LBJ's Chief of Staff, and he told me tons of stories about the man. I once asked him if LBJ would have liked me, and he gave me a long look, and said (he was a North Carolinian), "Darlin', he'd have loved you."

Anyway, from what I heard from my old boss about Lyndon, I suspect he'd have just taken a piss on GWB and moved on, never even noticing him.

[snippy]

4. Every republican president since Ike was a bigger spender than LBJ.

Government spending under Eisenhower as a percentage of GDP averaged a little over 17.4%. Government spending under Johnson as a percentage of GDP was highest in his last three years, which were fiscal years 1967, 1968, and 1969. During those years, government spending as a percentage of GDP was 19.4%, 20.6%, and 19.4% respectively. This is an average of 19.8%. Every republican administration since has averaged a higher level of spending. However, if the Nixon/Ford years are considered as two separate administrations, the Nixon administration's spending averaged only 19.5% of GDP.

A comparison of government spending and the annual federal deficits accumulated since 1960 under republican presidents and under democratic presidents shows that republicans are bigger spenders and run much larger deficits than democrats. Bush has been about average as a big spender for republican presidents. If Bush was a democrat he would be the biggest spending democrat since WWII.

The Kennedy/Johnson administrations accumulated deficits of $53.5 billion or $269.9 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 18.8% of GDP and the annual deficit never exceeded 3% of GDP.

The Nixon/Ford administrations accumulated deficits of $265.5 billion or $798.5 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 19.9% of GDP and the annual deficit exceeded 3% of GDP 2 times.

The Carter administration accumulated deficits of $252.7 billion or $519.4 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 21.2% of GDP and the annual deficit never exceeded 3% of GDP.

The Reagan administration accumulated deficits of $1,412.2 billion or $2,082.3 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 22.3% of GDP and the annual deficit exceeded 3% of GDP 7 times.

The Bush the Lesser administration accumulated deficits of $1,035.8 billion or $1,241.5 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 21.9% of GDP and the annual deficit exceeded 3% of GDP 4 times.

The Clinton administration accumulated a surplus of $62.5 billion or $15.9 billion in constant 2000 dollars. Annual spending by the federal government averaged 19.6% of GDP and the annual deficit never exceeded 3% of GDP.

The Bush the Liar administration has in just three years accumulated deficits of $947.5 billion. and projects additional accumulated deficits during his administration of $1,612.5 billion. Annual spending by the federal government has averaged 19.7% of GDP (19.9% with the current fiscal year estimate) and the annual deficit has exceeded 3% of GDP 2 times and almost certainly will again this fiscal year and probably the next fiscal year as well. All of the estimates included in these numbers are pre-Katrina and Rita, so the actual results for the estimated numbers will be much worse.

Thus, of the slightly more than $3.9 trillion in accumulated deficits since 1960, more than $3.6 trillion has been accumulated under republican presidents while only about $244 billion has been accumulated under democratic presidents. In constant 2000 dollars the numbers are more than $5.8 trillion in total accumulated deficits with about $5.1 trillion accumulated under republican presidents and about $700 billion accumulated under democratic presidents.

And of the 15 times since 1960 that the annual deficit has exceeded 3% of GDP, every single time it was under a republican president. In that time the annual deficit has never exceeded 3% of GDP under a democratic president.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/sheets/hist01z3.xls(Note: The first year of a presidential term operates under the budget and appropriations of the last year of the preceeding presidential term, except for any supplemental appropriation bills passed during such first year. The summary above does not include any such supplemental bills.)

[GRLMGC]

5. And not even on social programs

Great job, Dubya! :sarcasm: