

Want to Reduce Deficit Spending?  Prove It. - lmoorman
http://lewmoorman.com/want-to-reduce-deficit-spending-prove-it

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hga
A straw man attack that starts with a sexual slur against the author's enemies
fails to impress.

It would be a lot more productive to e.g. look at the general Tea Party theme,
which is smaller government. If the Federal, state and local governments try
to do less, there will be more money for the essentials and the entitlement
promises (and the latter _have_ to be adjusted, no feasible tax increases will
cover their current projected expenses and the status quo will soon devour the
"discretionary" budget; heck, Social Security is about to go into a deficit).

------
hga
US government spending reached 45% of GDP as of last year:
[http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.ht...](http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html)

It peaked at 52% in 1945 (WWII). Just how much of the country's wealth does
the author think our governments (Federal, state and local) can consume?

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mblakele
[http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cf...](http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15328727)
has an interesting chart too, covering just the past decade or so but
comparing a few developed countries.

The Economist uses OECD data, which comes in somewhat lower than the data
cited by the parent. I would be interested in knowing the reason for the
difference between these numbers.

~~~
hga
The difference is only three percentage points, and we're _very_ close to the
end of 2009, so it probably is based on different estimates of 2009 GDP.

It'll be spring or nearly so before we have solid 2009 GDP figures, if I
remember the various data reporting lags correctly.

