According to the
Washington Post, discretionary spending grew at 12.5% in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, and has grown 27% over the past two years.
The sudden rise in spending subject to Congress's annual discretion stands in marked contrast to the 1990s, when such discretionary spending rose an average of 2.4 percent a year. Not since 1980 and 1981 has federal spending risen at a similar clip. Before those two years, spending increases of this magnitude occurred at the height of the Vietnam War, 1966 to 1968.
This puts to lie Bush's claim (and, heck, the claims of Republicans in genera) that would end "Big Government".