Dispatches from the everything-you-know-is-wrong department

Simplistic, emotional, unfounded or agenda-laden assertions are anathema to successful progress and the Scouting Motto. So here at Fouroboros Worldwide, we have an entire division dedicated to spreading a little light into the deep dark karst of opinion masquerading as fact. We call them the Sunshine Squad. It's dangerous work, but they get Dental.

From the Wall Street Journal, Via The Fulcrum:

PROFLIGATE PRESIDENT Average annual real increases in domestic discretionary spending
	Fiscal Years	% Increase
Lyndon Johnson	1965-69	4.3%
Richard Nixon	1970-75	6.8%
Gerald Ford	1976-77	8.0%
Jimmy Carter	1978-81	2.0%
Ronald Reagan	1982-89	-1.3%
George H. W. Bush	1990-93	4.0%
Bill Clinton	1994-01	2.5%
George W. Bush	2002-04	8.2%
Source: Club for Growth, based on U.S. Budget, Historical tables, 2004

WSJ:

The much delayed omnibus appropriations bill for 2004, scheduled for a vote in the Senate this afternoon, looks set to cap the first term of the most profligate Administration since the 1960s. [snip] GOP leaders would have us believe this all adds up to one of the leanest spending plans in years -- an increase in federal discretionary spending of only 3%, compared with 13% and 12% in each of the previous two years.

But Brian Riedl of the Heritage Foundation points out that it's really more like a 9% increase, and that's assuming there will be no supplemental appropriations as in previous years.

(Sorry, no link to WSJ - subscription only.)

For those playing at home the numbers tally thus:

	Avg. Disc. Spending growth	Total Administrations	Total Fiscal Years	CPI/Inflation (avg. annual)	Avg. Senate Maj.(yrs)	Avg. House Maj.(yrs)
RED TEAM	5.14%	5	23	5.565%	Dem. (21)	Dem. (18)
BLUE TEAM	2.93%	3	17	5.27%	Dem. (16)	Dem. (13)

(House and Senate figures tentative, still sourcing. -Ed.)