The Bush administration has been a nightmare for fiscal conservatives.  Bush inherited a great fiscal situation - a budget surplus and slowing growth of total debt outstanding.  However, Bush refused to continue the trend, instead opting to return to the reckless and discredited fiscal policies of Reagan.  As a result, the US federal situation is far worse now than it was six years ago.  In other words, fiscal conservatives have every reason to be angry with the last six years of Republican leadership.

First, and perhaps most importantly, this graph highlights the last 40 years of US debt growth.

[1]

Let the graph sink in for a minute because it explains a very simple truth: over the last 25 years, Democrats have a proven track record of handling the nation's finances with maturity.  The Republicans have a track record of handling the nation's finances with pure recklessness.

Despite claims to the contrary, the Bush administration has demonstrated they don't have any control of the deficit.  Consider the following information from The Bureau of Public Debt: [2]

In 2002, total debt outstanding increased from $5.807 trillion to $6.228 trillion, or $421 billion.

In 2003, total debt outstanding increased from $6.228 trillion to $6.783 trillion, or $555 billion.

In 2004,  total debt outstanding increased from $6.783 trillion to $7.379 trillion, or $596 billion.

In 2005, yet total debt outstanding increased from $7.379 trillion to $7.932 trillion or $553 billion.

So far in 2006, total debt outstanding has increased from $7.932 to $8.527 trillion, or $595 billion.

Despite the administration's claims they will halve the budget deficit by 2008, the Treasury continues to issue over $550 billion dollars of new debt every year.  That means the deficit is not under control in any way.

The primary reason for this continual issuing a large amount of debt is simple: government expenditures have increased far faster than government revenues.  According to the Congressional Budget Office [3] government revenues were 19.8% of GDP in 2001 and 17.5% in 2005.  Over the same period, government expenditures increased from 18.5% to 20.1%.  The primary drop in government receipts occurred in individual income taxes, which were $994 (9.9% of GDP) billion in 2001 and $927 (7.5% of GDP) billion in 2005.  Over the same period, discretionary spending increased from $649 (6.5% of GDP) billion to $967 billion (7.9% of GDP).

The numbers above are simple:  Bush's policies have returned the US to the Reagan policy of deficit spending.  That means Bush's tax cuts are in fact tax deferrals; at some time the US will have to pay for the debt it has issued.  In essence, we are borrowing today hoping for a growth rate high enough to pay for the debt we have issued.  However, Bush's growth rate is on par with the last 25 years of growth.  That means we're not getting more bang for the buck.  Instead, we are getting one big fiscal headache.