![clip_image010[3]](http://thepoliticsofdebt.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/clip-image0103.gif)
As you can see, Reagan took the size of the government from a low of 19.7% to a high of 21.6%. All to leave it at the same level he had found it. What he did do, was to destroy much of the social programs created during the Roosevelt Administration, with a government that was even bigger than Roosevelt's. In fact, up to the Second World War, the government was never bigger than 20.7% of the GDP, and this is during the years of crazy government spending to get out of the big depression. What's more, at its lowest point, the Roosevelt government was only 18.3% of the national GDP, a level never achieved by any other Republican up to President Bush.
What did I just say; George W. Bush is in fact a fiscal conservative? Well, the truth is, no. He is not. As a matter of fact, during his administration, the size of the government relative to the wealth of the nation grew by almost 2%.
So, where is this myth coming from? How come reducing social programs does not reduce government expenditures. The sad truth is that Republican politicians have been lying to their base for the past 25 years.
The chart of Nondefense expenditures relative to national GDP does not match any of the spikes or rises on government size.
As you can see, other than the spike during the Truman administration, and the one time low during the Eisenhower administration, the "big government" size is not dependent on reducing the social programs (reflected with other expenses on this chart).
Why and when does the government grow?
You just saw the answer. The biggest contributor to "big government" is national defense, not social programs.
The history of Big Government since 1929 looks like this.
If you are a fiscal conservative and you were thinking on voting republican, you may need to think again.
- The last fiscal conservative Republican president was Richard Nixon (although he was highly interventionist, and if he were judged by the same standards fiscal conservatives applied to FDR, a socialist)
- You may think that social programs are not the solution, but neither are they the problem
- It is war, and not social programs, where the government gets fat
- Imperialistic adventures are the source of our fiscal problems, not a solution for our Republic
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