Our big-spender President

February 2, 2008
Our big-spender President

President Bush's budget for fiscal year 2009, which goes to Congress, carries an alarming
distinction: For the first time in the history of the republic, annual federal spending will cross
the $3 trillion mark.

And federal spending got there early. That figure had been anticipated but not until next year
when the new president would have been saddled with that honor.

Bush was also in office when the government crossed the $2 trillion mark in 2002 and the
budget, thanks to the president's free spending Republican allies in Congress, sank into deficit
after four years of surpluses.

To get a sense of the growth of government, consider: Spending didn't cross the $1 trillion
mark until 1987 and the $100 billion threshold until 1972.