We Are All Big Spenders

TW: Norris specs out federal spending by party over the past 50 years. His point is the old cliche that Dems spend more than Republicans is not borne out. To me the point is that just about everyone spends too much but just on different things. Broadly speaking Dems generally want to spend more on things like education and health care, the Republicans defense and prisons. Clinton was the only one who saw material decreases and some of that was due to the "peace dividend" post-Cold War.

The net result is there never has been a clear consensus to cut spending everyone always has their pet priorities. So again if and when Americans decide they are serious about building a more secure economic future (i.e. less reliant on debt), they will sacrifice their own pet priorities and demand politicians cut the Big Three- social security, health care and defense. Until then the discussions are all BS.

From Floyd Norris at NYT:
"...It used to be — before Ronald Reagan — that the federal government grew when the Democrats were in office, and became smaller when the Republicans were in the Oval Office.
Since then, the relationship has reversed.

The figures that follow are the increase (or decrease) in real gross domestic product caused by federal government spending...In 2008, the federal government gain was 3.0 percent, according to preliminary data. That was the largest since 1967, when it was an increase in Vietnam War spending, coupled with the Great Society, that produced the surge in government growth. (Remember “guns vs. butter”?)

Here are the figures for average contribution of the federal government to growth in G.D.P., by four-year terms. A positive sign means the government grew in real terms. A negative one means it got smaller. The figures are compound annual changes for each term.
1949-52 (Truman, D) +8.7%
1953-57 (Eisenhower, R) -1.3%
1957-60 (Eisenhower, R) -0.2%
1961-64 (Kennedy-Johnson, D) +2.1%
1965-68 (Johnson-D) +4.3%
1969-72 (Nixon, R) -2.8%
1973-76 (Nixon-Ford, R) -0.7%
1977-80 (Carter, D) +1.0%
1981-84 (Reagan, R) +1.1%
1985-88 (Reagan, R) +1.7%
1989-92 (GHW Bush, R) +0.7%
1993-96 (Clinton, D) -2.6%
1997-2000 (Clinton, D) -0.1%
2001-04 (GW Bush, R) +0.9%
2005-08 (GW Bush, R) +0.9%
http://norris.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/big-government-republicans/