March 10, 2009 10:35AM # He Has a Point By [Michael D. Tanner](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-d-tanner) --- SHARE Stung by accusations that he is a “socialist,” President Obama [pointed out](http://washingtontimes.com/weblogs/joe-curl/2009/Mar/08/obama-makes-oval-office-call-reporters/) to two *New York Times* reporters that, “it wasn’t under me that we started buying a bunch of shares of banks. It wasn’t on my watch. And it wasn’t on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement -– the prescription drug plan — without a source of funding.” Not to defend Obama’s unprecedented increase on government spending or plans to involve the government in almost every area of our lives…but he does have a point. As I pointed out in [Leviathan on the Right](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&method=cats&scid=33&pid=1441337&__utma=1.988121047051205200.1236686792.1236693284.1236694933.5&__utmb=1.2.10.1236694933&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1236686792.1.1.utmcsr=(direct)|utmccn=(direct)|utmcmd=(none)&__utmv=-&__utmk=254605832), the Bush administration’s brand of big-government conservatism was, at the very least, the greatest expansion of government from Lyndon Johnson to, well, Barack Obama. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).