“President [George W.] Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years.” ---Stephen Slivinski, “The Grand Old Spending Party: How Republicans Became Big Spenders,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis, No. 543 (May 3, 2005), p. 1. -------------------------Liberal politicians — Howard Dean and John Kerry come immediately to mind — profess disdain for President Bush and his cohorts. * But is this ideologically based contempt justified? Have the actions of the president and his party gone against the...