You hear
the right constantly complaining about big government; seems like their
mantra. But what are they complaining about? How many ever check to see if the
government is actually growing or not? From what I’m reading that does not seem
to be the case at all.
The above
seems to contradict that idea that government is growing.
The next the
right complains about is generally entitlement spending versus defense
spending. Defense spending the like and Reagan and Bush II set records for
that. But for some reason folk don’t like entitlements, except if it benefits
them. They also seem confused about what entitlements are, such as Social
Security, which is not an entitlement at all.
This
chart seems to blow that idea as well. There is a lot of complaining about what
has already happened but it sold then so why not keep on selling it even if it
is not relevant.
For a
much more detailed and better analysis of this and where I get my material go
to http://baselinescenario.com/2011/05/12/whats-a-big-government/
The charts are cooked. The Y axes show the total divided by something else, as opposed to the actual total. I'd like to see the charts with the actual dollar amounts.
ReplyDeleteThey're not "cooked", spending as a % of GDP is the most standard measure of the economic 'size' of government in the economy. Just charting "dollar amounts" is meaningless at best, and misleading at worst, because it gives no context as to size of the economy, inflation, etc.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a chart of govt employees as a %age of the working population. That would be a much more interesting measure of the 'size' of government in the more literal sense, and in terms of diverted 'work effort'.
RE: "a chart of govt employees as a %age of the working population." If you have population figures, this one can be used. It appears that it would place the 'Reagan Revolution' in even harsher light...
ReplyDelete