In latest Liberty, Bill Bradford does some very interesting number-crunching on the politics of government spending. Turns out our view of Dems as spenders and Reps as restrainers holds from the 40s till about 1970. Then things changed. For example, since 1970 spending has grown 64 percent faster when a Rep sits in the White House than when a Dem does, and the slowest spending growth occurred when a Dem had the White House and the Reps controlled both houses of Congressââ?¬â??which, assuming the GOP maintains control of Congress, is what a Kerry victory would bring.