On Spending, Bush is no Reagan

I wonder how much longer the media is going to refer to George W. Bush as a conservative. The American government currently seems to be anti-Free Trade and pro-big government, two things you would not expect from a supposedly conservative President. I was happy to see this morning that I was not the only one to notice this.

The Cato Institute has just released a report titled On Spending, Bush is no Reagan. (Warning: Report is in PDF format) The report concludes:

"While the government's overall share of the economy was reduced only slightly under Reagan, he did fight to restrain it despite an often hostile Congress. Unfortunately, Bush has thus far shown no leadership on spending reform even though he enjoys strong support from the majority of Congress."