Karl Rove’s Spending

Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove enjoys complaining about the spendthrift ways of President Obama and the Democrats. But I noted in a Wall Street Journal letter today:

Annual average real spending grew faster under President George W. Bush than any president since Lyndon Johnson… Even leaving out defense, President Bush was the biggest spender since Republican Richard Nixon.

My letter pointed to two prior op‐​eds by Rove, but he was at it again yesterday in the Journal. He said that his former boss “cut in half the growth of discretionary domestic spending from the sizzling 16 percent rate of President Bill Clinton’s last budget.” Call me crazy, but I don’t think supporting domestic spending growth of 8 percent during a time of very low inflation is an acheivement to crow about.


Over at National Review, Veronique de Rugy apparently gets just as annoyed as I do hearing big‐​spending Republicans complain about big‐​spending Democrats.


Mr. Rove’s columns are usually very interesting, but I’d like to see him accept at least some of the blame for the exploding size of government during his tenure at the White House.


Here are the data on spending by presidents.