Republicans Are The Biggest Spenders

It seems like one of the Republican mantras I've been hearing for decades is that the Democrats are big spenders (while Republicans are more "conservative with government spending). The GOP has even come up with a phrase to convince Americans of this -- they call Democrats "tax and spend liberals". I guess that sounds good, if you're a right-winger. There's only one problem with it. It's just not true.

Economist Mark Thoma, who teaches at the University of Oregon, decided to find out just who the biggest spenders really were. The chart above shows what he found when he looked at the figures for the last forty years. It turns out that the presidents that increased spending the most were all Republicans (and a couple of the worst offenders had claimed to be conservatives).

The presidents who increased per capita spending the most were Republicans: (1) Nixon-Ford, (2) Reagan, and (3) "W" Bush. And the presidents who increased per capita spending the least were Democrats: (1) Clinton and (2) Obama. That exposes the current Republican claim of President Obama's enormous increase in government spending as an outrageous lie. Both his predecessor George W. Bush and conservative demi-god Ronald Reagan increased per capita spending far more than President Obama has.

Don't get me wrong. I personally believe President Obama should be spending much more than he is currently spending. That's because of the massive unemployment and faltering economy we are currently cursed with (and which was caused by Republican de-regulation and mismanagement). The government should be spending more to create jobs (even if it has to create government jobs) and prime the economic pump. I just want that money spent to help ordinary Americans, rather than how the Republicans spent it (on wars, military build-ups, corporate giveaways, etc.).

Now we know the truth. It is not the Democrats who are the big spenders, but the Republicans. The sad part is that the big-spending Republicans refused to spend any money on things that would actually help ordinary Americans.