He "slipped up"

And Patsy didn't catch it, either, did she?

From FactCheck.org:

President Bush slipped up in his hour-long interview with NBC's Tim Russert over the weekend, claiming that the growth of discretionary federal spending has slowed markedly since he took office. But in fact, annual growth has been in double digits for the past three years, far higher than in any year of the Clinton administration.

A Bush spokesman said the President meant to refer to discretionary spending minus military spending and spending for homeland security. But what the President actually said was wrong.

Of course, it's like putting the lie on the front page, and then burying the retraction the next day on page 12. Who finds out? The damage is done. He "slipped up". Of course. An honest mistake. I'm sure he'll go back on Meet the Press next Sunday to clear it up.

I'm glad to see this article, because when I read this part of the transcript, I wondered about that statement. Something told me that it either probably wasn't technically correct, or there was a caveat that he wasn't mentioning. Gee, I hate to be right about the sleezebag all the time.

Patsy Russert: But your base conservatives -- and listen to Rush Limbaugh, the Heritage Foundation, CATO Institute, they're all saying you are the biggest spender in American history.

President Bush: Well, they're wrong.

Russert: Mr. President

President Bush: If you look at the appropriations bills that were passed under my watch, in the last year of President Clinton, discretionary spending was up 15 percent, and ours have steadily declined.

Discretionary spending -- meaning spending that is subject to annual legislative appropriations, as opposed to spending for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare -- actually grew only 5.6% in Clinton 's last budget year (fiscal year 2001, which began October 1, 2000).

Since then discretionary spending has not "steadily declined" as the President said, but has gone up. In fact, the growth has been much faster than under Clinton . In the first year for which President Bush signed the spending bills discretionary spending growth soared to 13.1%, and annual growth remained in double digits through the current fiscal year.

How could the President be so wrong in a nationally televised interview? White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said the President meant to refer not to discretionary spending overall, but only to the portion of it not attributable to military spending or homeland security. That would exclude well over half of all discretionary spending this year.

More

The Progress Report has a special edition with some other Double-face "slip ups" in the interview: Claim vs. Fact

My own analysis from Sunday, along with a link to the full interview transcript, is here. Not quite as professional. Ha.