Oh, yeah...he's a 'conservative' alright.
By Brad Friedman on 10/11/2004, 10:35pm PT  

Catching up on a few items I've had sitting around...From Debate #2, Dubyanocchio said:

BUSH: Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it's less than 1 percent, because we're working together to try to bring this deficit under control.

I realize I may be naive, but surely there's must be some "rationale" for his "1 percent" number. Perhaps there's some Freepers around who can explain to me how he managed to use that number, in public, and on national television, without it being an out and out lie.

Kevin Drum did some digging, and has more details, but basically, these seem to be the numbers for increases in discretionary spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office, over the last six administrations:

Non-Defense Related Discretionary Spending

Nixon/Ford: 6.8% per year
Carter: 2.0% per year
Reagan: -1.3% per year
Bush 1: 4.0% per year
Clinton: 2.5% per year
Bush Jr: 8.2% per year

Quite a different story than the tale spun for America last Friday night. And one that should make any real conservative (not the fake Bush conservatives, apparently) shudder.

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