On out-of-control spending

I just purchased Alan Greenspan's memoir/treatise Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World. I have yet to crack open the book, but I have to admit, this excerpt from a Wall Street Journal article by Greg Ip and Emily Steel piqued my curiosity:

Mr. Greenspan, who calls himself a "lifelong libertarian Republican," writes that he advised the White House to veto some bills to curb "out-of-control" spending while the Republicans controlled Congress. He says President Bush's failure to do so "was a major mistake." Republicans in Congress, he writes, "swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither. They deserved to lose."

Good to know that there are still some folks in North America who believe in small-government and less waste. And btw, "swapping principle for power" when it comes to economic policy isn't just an ethos germane to government south of the border, if you know what I mean.