President Bush has managed to spend money at a rate that is unparalleled in modern times:

If President Bush’s budget for fiscal 2009 is approved in its current form, U.S. government spending will have increased by more than $1.2 trillion since President Clinton left office; adjusted for inflation, that’s a 35% increase. Bush has increased spending at three times the rate Clinton did when he was president, and also has given us the biggest defense budget since World War II — and that’s regularly budgeted defense spending, not counting funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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The president’s projections show the budget running a surplus of $48 billion by fiscal 2012. That fantastical figure includes some rosy assumptions — that the Democrats in Congress enact Bush’s proposal to trim the growth of Medicare and Medicaid by $195.7 billion over five years; that the alternative minimum tax is allowed to hit more taxpayers after the 2008 tax year; and that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not funded beyond fiscal 2009. Even if all that came true, the White House should be focusing on reducing the size of government, not just reducing overspending.

The $3.1-trillion fiscal 2009 budget proposal represents Bush’s last chance to establish his legacy. Unfortunately, it will be one of massive deficit spending that will be paid for by generations to come.