Marginal Revolution: Has Bush cut back government bureaucracy?

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Has Bush cut back government bureaucracy?

The following table lists how many of the major agencies or departments had their budgets cut in a given Presidential term:

President and Term, Number of Budget Cuts [see the last link in this post for further explanation of the data. I've done minor editing and added the boldface]
Johnson, 4 out 15
Nixon, 3 out 15
Carter, 5 out 15
Reagan 1, 8 out 15
Reagan 2, 10 out 15
Bush, George H., 2 out 15
Clinton 1, 9 out 15
Clinton 2, 0 out 15
Bush, George W., 0 out 15

Obviously Reagan II made real efforts in this direction. George W. comes in tied for last with Clinton II. This is a highly imperfect proxy, but when you are 0 for 15 it is hard to blame measurement error alone.

Here is one unnoticed achievement of Ronald Reagan:

President Reagan is the only president to have cut the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in one of his terms (a total of 40.1 percent during his second term).

Here is the full and sad story on Bush's fiscal policy for the agencies and departments. Here are the underlying data.

Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 13, 2004 at 01:53 AM in Current Affairs, Political Science | Permalink

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» Bush Administration's record on cutting the bureaucracy from Houston's Clear Thinkers
Tyler Cowen post this analysis over at Marginal Revolutions reflecting that the Bush Administration compares poorly with other administrations of the past 40 years in terms of reducing the amount of major governmental agency or department budgets. As M... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 13, 2004 12:05:23 PM

» Bush Administration's record on cutting the bureaucracy from Houston's Clear Thinkers
Tyler Cowen posts this analysis over at Marginal Revolutions reflecting that the Bush Administration compares poorly with other administrations of the past 40 years in terms of reducing the amount of major governmental agency or department budgets. As ... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 13, 2004 3:08:51 PM

» Reagan and Bureaucracy from Priorities & Frivolities
Tyler Cowen highlights this American Enterprise Institute study, which applauds Ronald Reagan's "willingness to fight for reductions in domestic spending." It notes, among other things:President... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 13, 2004 6:58:05 PM

» On this score, even the Democrats did better from Right Side of the Rainbow
Of the last 7 presidents, including 3 Democrats, all but one have cut the budgets of major federal agencies. The one exception, I suspect, will not surprise you. Of the reasons to vote for Mr. Bush, fiscal responsibility isn’t one... [Read More]

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» Bush y Reagan from El Rincón, apuntes liberales
Como modesta apostilla al magnífico artículo de José Carlos Rodríguez en LD, añado la referencia a un post de Marginal Revolution en el que se preguntan si Bush ha recortado la burocracia ... ni mucho menos si lo comparamos con... [Read More]

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» Clinton & Bush II -- our worst modern Presidents. from PRESTOPUNDIT -- "excellent" says 2blowhards "must readings" says Nick Schutz
"The following table lists how many of the major agencies or departments had their budgets cut in a given Presidential term .. Johnson, 4 out 15 Nixon, 3 out... [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 14, 2004 2:34:41 AM