The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities's Robert Greenstein gave testimony to Congress last week. It's a great summary of CBPP's invaluable work on appropriation levels. Bottom line: overall government spending may have increased under Bush, but, depending on how you measure it, real spending on discretionary social programs has either declined or increased only marginally. UPDATE: I should qualify what I said a bit. Not everything was that awesome. This made me mad:  It is in the tax code and the health care system, along with Social Security, that tough decisions will have to be made sooner or later. If these choices are so tough, and we have to do them so soon, then let's hear what they are. Specifics, please...