Federal Spending Up-Way Up-Under President Bush

During his State of the Union Address last month, President George W. Bush called on Congress to be "good stewards of tax dollars" and touted his administration's actions to slow the rate of growth of non-security discretionary spending. Bush went on to claim that his newest budget will "save the American taxpayer another $14 billion next year" and urged lawmakers to "confront the larger challenge of mandatory spending, or entitlements" because the "retirement of the Baby Boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government." Bush lamented Congress's failure to fix Social Security and pointed out that "by 2030, spending for Social security, Medicare, and Medicaid alone will be almost 60% of the entire federal budget."

The Heritage Foundation has issued a report by Brian Riedl titled "Federal Spending: By the Numbers" (available at www.heritage.org) revealing that not only is federal spending up under Bush, but it has grown twice as fast as it did under President Bill Clinton. For example, Riedl points out that federal spending has increased by 33% since 2001, from $1.863 trillion to $2.472 trillion, which translates to almost $22,000 per household, the highest level since World War II.

Riedl's data show that discretionary spending increases were generally small in the 1990s. But since 2001 discretionary spending has jumped 49%.

Bush's call for action on the "challenge" of entitlements was well received by conservatives, but the administration's record on entitlement growth is not encouraging. Riedl's report reveals that unreformed entitlement programs are continuing to grow, having hit a record 10.8% of GDP, and are projected to double over the next decade. One of the leading factors in the projected growth in mandatory spending is Bush's Medicare drug entitlement, which will add $8.1 trillion in unfunded liabilities over 75 years-more than double that of Social Security ($3.7 trillion).

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