> Total US Government Spending, federal, state and local, was increasing briskly, year on year, in the mid 2000s from $4.4 trillion in 2005 to $6 trillion in th

> Total US Government Spending, federal, state and local, was increasing briskly, year on year, in the mid 2000s from $4.4 trillion in 2005 to $6 trillion in the depths of the Great Recession in 2009. For several years after the end of the recession total government spending leveled out at $6 trillion. But in 2015 spending started to increase again. per year. Viewed from a GDP perspective, total government spending was steady at about 33 percent GDP in the mid 2000s and then jumped, in the Great Recession, to 41 percent GDP. But in the subsequent economic recovery total government spending has steadily declined as a percent of GDP down to about 34 percent GDP in 2015. Maybe, but there was no austerity. There was a freeze in total spending in absolute terms and inflation was practically zero so real terms as well. The years prior to the crisis spending grew in absolute terms as th economy grew so spending stayed at the elevated rate https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/total_spending_chart