A freebie for the liberals on the board--a new derisive name for Bush based on the immense spending increases under his watch.

According to this editorial in the WSJ, he may be earning it.

The government spends like an alcoholic drinks, slugging back liquor like there's no tomorrow. The problem is, this alcoholic is driving the bus we're all riding.

There seems to be no way to put the brakes on government growth. I've got no bright ideas. I've heard no bright ideas. Republican presidents with huge approval ratings just lie down in front of the spending locomotive and get run over. The 1994 Republican legislature tried, at least in the House, but everything hit the brick wall of the Senate, in spite of Republican control. Spending went up, government bureaucracies stayed healthy.

The sad truth is that Republicans have bought into the main role of our current government, which is to funnel money out of citizens' pockets as quietly as possible, and hand it out to other citizens with as much fanfare as possible, in order to buy votes. The percentage of the Federal Budget that falls into this category (entitlements, subsidies, pork, unnecessary military contracts, etc. etc.) is depressingly large.

The estimated 2003 budget is about 2.13 trillion dollars. 181 billion of this is interest, and 16 billion is Emergency Response Fund. Of the remainder, discretionary spending is 773 billion. Of this spending, 368 billion is defense. How much of this "discretionary spending" falls into the category of throwing money to buy votes is more research than I care to do (the Crusader money will just be spend somewhere else), but it's at least a good part of it.

1.16 trillion is mandatory ("entitlements"): Social Security, Medicare, Medicade are 862 billion of this, with other mandatory spending adding up to 297 billion. Entitlements absorb over 54 percent of the total budget.

Spending on Social Security*, Medicare and Medicade is over 41 percent of the entire Federal Budget. For the record, it adds up to about $24,600 for every last American citizen over the age of 65.

*Yeah, I know, not all of Social Security goes to the elderly.