Monday, August 26, 2013

The debate rages, is federal spending high


Evidently the Washington Post is having trouble with big and small regarding the size of central government. Rather than complain lets look.  DC spending, as a proportion of gross domestic product is the second highest in over 30 years, only Ronald Reagan, the Republican Communist, did worse. Of course, Obama manages to hold the peak record, but whose counting pennies when we are comparing to the great overlord of Big Government Republicanism.

In order to get federal spending down to a sustainable 20%, how much should we cut? To a first order, that would be 3/23 or about 10%.  So, Chait and Drum need to explain how we get another 10% cut in government, and quit complaining about newspapers.

Is Chait telling me that a 23% share for the federal government is sustainable? Or, as Drum implies, multipliers are always greater than one because,..well, Obama says so.

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