A report claims that Bush's growth in discretionary spending in the first 6 years of his administration eclipses even that of LBJ: 5.3%/year vs. 4.6%/year. Of course, there can also be growth in non-discretionary programs (or even the creation of them) such as Social Security or Medicare, so those numbers might not tell the whole story about growth in government spending over an administration--but, then, Bush may have increased some of that spending, too.