If you asked 100 Americans which political party supports more government spending, I suspect a clear majority would be inclined to label Democrats “big spenders.” A new report published in USA Today, however, notes this belief is more myth than reality.
As the report explains, “Republicans, who pride themselves on being frugal with taxpayers’ money, were bigger spenders than Democrats in state legislatures over the past five years.”
As states are suffering their most dramatic budgetary crises in generations, many Republicans on the state and federal level argue that it is state spending that is causing the most dramatic problems. While this is completely false, it’s also ironic that the same political party complaining the most about government spending is the same group writing most of the checks.
“State legislatures controlled by Republicans increased spending an average of 6.54% per year from 1997-2002, compared with 6.17% for legislatures controlled by Democrats,” USA Today reported.
As for spending and the governors’ party affiliation, the largest spending increases were seen when there was a Republican legislature with a Republican governor (6.85% spending increase), while the smallest increases came when there was a Republican legislature and a Democratic governor (5.74% spending increase).