Fantastic.

(The Hill) — Despite all the budget wrangling in Congress this year and the intense focus of House Republicans on cuts, spending grew by $145 billion in fiscal 2011 compared to a year earlier, the Congressional Budget Office confirmed Monday.

The April spending deal cut $38.5 billion in discretionary budget authority, but the government continued to make outlays based on previous authorizations and mandatory spending continued on autopilot.

The CBO report comes amid grumbling by House GOP freshmen that they have been unable to live up to campaign pledges to bring government spending to pre-stimulus, pre-bailout levels.

Overall spending outlays in 2008 were $2.98 trillion while outlays in 2011 were $3.6 trillion, higher than spending at the peak of the administration’s stimulus plan in 2009, when $3.5 trillion was spent.

The year 2011 saw a 1 percent increase in defense spending, 3.5 percent increase in Social Security spending and 4 percent increase in Medicare spending compared to 2010. Interest on the debt increased by 16 percent.