Conservative Republicans are still telling the people we need to go back to the Reagan era and control federal spending like he did. It was especially pronounced during the last Presidential campaign during the Republican debates. Romney and McCain talked about the Reagan legacy often even though they knew it was a fairy tale. Lets examine the spending record of the Reagan, Bush 41, Clinton and Bush 43 administrations and see who actually did the best job of controlling federal spending.
The below information covers the four year term of each President ending in that fiscal year. Source is taken from the Congressional Budget Office.
Jimmie Carter 1981 Total Federal Spending $2.232 Trillion
Ronald Reagan 1985 Total Federal Spending $3.352 Trillion Up $1.120 trillion or 50%
Ronald Reagan 1989 Total Federal Spending 4.203 Trillion Up $851 billion or 25%
George H.W. Bush 1993 Total Federal Spending $5.369 Trillion Up $1.166 trillion or 28%
Bill Clinton 1997 Total Federal Spending $6.140 Trillion Up $771 billion or 14%
Bill Clinton 2001 Total Federal Spending $ 7.007 Trillion Up $867 billion or 14%
George W. Bush 2005 Total Federal Spending $8.936 Trillion Up $1.929 trillion or 28%
George W. Bush 2009 Total Federal Spending $11.883 Trillion Up $2.947 trillion or 33%
The numbers show not only did federal spending increase much less under President Clinton for eight years, but the increase was at a steady 14% for each of his two terms. Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 do not even come close. The numbers indicate those three Presidents never had federal spending under control while Clinton did. Also Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 did not face the magnitude of deficit spending that Clinton had to face and take on and that makes Clinton's record even more impressive.
Bob Woodward pointed out in one of his books on Clinton that Clinton new more about the federal budget than members of Congress who had been dealing with budget matters for decades. That explains in part why Clinton was so successful in balancing the budget and bringing federal spending under control, and why he knew his deficit reduction and economic policies would work for America and its people.
Conservative Republican Presidents are champions when it comes to increasing federal spending. That is why you never heard a peep out of them during the 20 years of spending spree of Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 and none of those three Presidents faced the fiscal disaster Clinton took over or the fiscal and economic disaster Bush 43 left President Obama.
President Reagan presided over the first trillion dollar budget. George Bush 43 presided over the first two and three trillion dollar budgets. It took the country 15 years to go from a one trillion dollar budget to a two trillion dollar budget. But it only took Bush 43 seven years to go from a two trillion dollar budget to a three trillion dollar budget.
Federal spending is made up of discretionary spending and non-discretionary spending. If anyone is interested go to the CBO site and you will find that Clinton was also the best at holding down spending in those two categories as well by a wide margin.
Conservative Republican Presidents are best at controlling federal spending????????? That is pure myth, the numbers speak loud and clear.
