Bryan Caplan points to this graph of government spending as a percentage of gdp beginning in 1900. Bryan notes:
Aside from the two World Wars, the growth was almost linear until the early Reagan years. Then it was basically flat until the late Bush years, when it exploded. Now we're almost exactly where we would have been if you did a linear extrapolation for the Truman-to-Carter era (or the Teddy Roosevelt-to-Carter era for that matter).
Focusing in a little more, we can see just how pronounced it was with W. Beginning immediately in 2001 G/GDP turns upward. Notice also that the trend was going down for Reagan, but then started upwards under Bush I.
Now, you can't put all the blame on the president since all spending originates in Congress. Gridlock is the next best thing to having a constitution.
UPDATE: To be fair, both Bush I and Bush II were saddled with recessions and wars during their tenures, while under Clinton there was a bubble and he had a Republican Congress with which he struggled. But then again, that wasn't until 1994, and the G/GDP ratio was already declining.
BTW: Here is G/GDP since 1790.
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