You did characterize it, when you called it excessive. In a sense I agree, spending by the federal government overall has been excessive since at least the 30s (I'd give the spending during WWII a pass, but after the war spending didn't decline as much as the need for spending did.)
Now... as far as "building up a military after years of neglect, and then helping to end the cold war...." (I suppose you might mean 'Star Wars' from that latter mention...) --- EVERY PRESIDENT THAT SPENDS (or 'over-spends') has HIS OWN EXCUSES FOR WHY HE DID IT!
They ALL do.
But this one has the advantage of being true.
Not just that there was an important reason for the spending, but that there was a direct fiscal benefit from it, the ability to lower the spending later because the military was modernized and the cold war was over. Clinton was the recipient of that benefit. Take that away from him, give him a continuing cold war, with a decaying military, and he wouldn't have restrained spending growth.
You have to analyze spending in the context of the situation where the money is spent. FDR spent a lot more in WWII then he did before it, but the WWII spending wasn't excessive the way the earlier spending was (there was a justification for an increase of spending with the depression, but not for as much increase in spending, and esp. not for the tax and regulatory increases passed at the time). Bush I had a justification for spending increases in response to 9/11, Katrina, Afghanistan and anti-terror efforts in general, debateably Iraq (if you think it was negative, or at least entirely unnecessary which I think you do, you can drop that part), but his spending increases where too high, and went on too long for that justification to cover it (and also was largely in other areas). He deserves to be slammed for spending too much money. Obama has some justification for extra spending because of the financial and economic problems of the moment, but not for trillions of dollars of bailout and stimulus money, beyond the normal automatic increases built in to existing law, so Obama's started out as a spendthrift. Of course he has a lot of time to change things. |
