This is a caudo special podcast. I'm Caleb Brown. President Bush has laid out a

3.1 trillion dollar spending plan for the federal government. In his eight years

in office, Bush has presided over spending

growth that more than doubles growth during the Clinton years.

Chris Edwards, Director of Tax Policy Studies at the Cato Institute, offers a few highlights and low lights of Bush's latest spending plan.

This is from the New York Times.

Mr Bush's 2009 budget estimates that federal receipts will decline this year by

47 billion dollars to 2.5 trillion, mainly because of the soft economy and a

declining corporate income tax receipts. At the same time, federal spending is expected to rise

this year by 201 billion dollars to a total of 2.9 trillion.

Now aside from actually declining revenues, that's a trend for Bush,

spending his outstripped revenues for his entire term as president, hasn't it?

The new Bush budget is a continuation of his prior budget policies,

gigantic deficits, huge increases in spending, and frankly dishonest accounting.

He uses smoke and mirrors to show that the federal

budget picture is better than it is. To give you one example of that, President

Bush says the deficit next year will be $400 billion.

In fact, he's only included about $70 billion

for his so-called Global War on Terror,

but the Global War on Terror

has cost $200 billion the last few years.

So it seems to me no matter whoever is the next president

...