winterbadger | well, that's simple

Bush said critics, including conservatives, are "wrong" to say he has not kept control of the federal budget. "If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined," he said.

Federal discretionary spending has grown by more than 25 percent in the past two fiscal years, following average annual increases of 2.4 percent in discretionary spending in the 1990s, according to figures from congressional budget panels.

He's either a fool or a liar, and I want neither on running my country