Tax and spend Democrats?

I was just clicking through some Wikipedia pages about US federal spending* and found this little gem:

1978-2005:
Party of President---Fed. Spending----Fed. Debt-----GDP
--------------------------Increase--------Increase---Increase
Democrat-----------------9.9%------------4.2%------12.6%
Republican--------------12.1%-----------36.4%------10.7%

Now, I know that there are mitigating factors, and in absolute terms both Reagan and Bush Sr. did decrease spending in one of their years in charge (two years out of twelve), but the numbers are pretty strong, especially the Debt Increase percentages. In Reagan's first term the federal debt increased a whopping 49%, in his second 40%. Spending has increased 18.9% under the current Bush regime.

*searching for some facts to back up my claim that Republicans haven't reduced spending in the past 50 years, a reply to someone who simplistically claimed that Democrats tax and spend and Republicans decrease taxes, spending and government.