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The simplest measure of the size of federal government is the budget. Spending has grown wonderfully since 1980, so frankly if their objective is to “shrink gov

The simplest measure of the size of federal government is the budget. Spending has grown wonderfully since 1980, so frankly if their objective is to “shrink government” they’ve done a horrible job.

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
Actually, as a percentage of GDP, it hasn't grown much at all in that time period. Or let me state that differently, it didn't grow much because it actually shrank https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spendi... EDIT: misread chart, made false claim above. 1980 was a few percentage points of GDP below 2019 spending. Sorry for the false claim.
- simonsarris 7y ago
  Percentage of GDP seems like a really awkward measure. Government takes dollars to run and budget makes for a good approximation of size. With GDP, imagine someone invented an amazing technology that 10x'd the GDP of a country. Would you expect the gov budget to 10x in line? That would seem like a terrible capture of resources. (imagine say, the internet, etc)
  - Nasrudith 7y ago
    It still measures effective ROI - and traditionally growth in GDP is accompanied by growing needs. It is true that it is fuzzy - different needs scale differently as well. A 10x GDP rise would almost certainly cause an explosion in demand for other services as well with or without the influx caused by the growtg.
- deleted 7y ago
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- michaelkeenan 7y ago
  That chart shows government spending at about 35.8% of GDP in 1980, and 37.8% now.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
    Indeed. I totally misread the chart. Edited my post to reflect the error. In my defense, I think it still shows something quite different from what the OP was claiming. But I was even more clearly wrong.
seppin 7y ago
They don't want to shrink it as a whole, just the funding for things like women's healthcare and immigration services that they don't agree with. Corporate tax rate cuts and military spending is fine.

PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago

Actually, as a percentage of GDP, it hasn't grown much at all in that time period. Or let me state that differently, it didn't grow much because it actually shrank https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spendi... EDIT: misread chart, made false claim above. 1980 was a few percentage points of GDP below 2019 spending. Sorry for the false claim.

simonsarris 7y ago
Percentage of GDP seems like a really awkward measure. Government takes dollars to run and budget makes for a good approximation of size. With GDP, imagine someone invented an amazing technology that 10x'd the GDP of a country. Would you expect the gov budget to 10x in line? That would seem like a terrible capture of resources. (imagine say, the internet, etc)
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  It still measures effective ROI - and traditionally growth in GDP is accompanied by growing needs. It is true that it is fuzzy - different needs scale differently as well. A 10x GDP rise would almost certainly cause an explosion in demand for other services as well with or without the influx caused by the growtg.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
michaelkeenan 7y ago
That chart shows government spending at about 35.8% of GDP in 1980, and 37.8% now.
- PaulDavisThe1st 7y ago
  Indeed. I totally misread the chart. Edited my post to reflect the error. In my defense, I think it still shows something quite different from what the OP was claiming. But I was even more clearly wrong.

seppin 7y ago

They don't want to shrink it as a whole, just the funding for things like women's healthcare and immigration services that they don't agree with. Corporate tax rate cuts and military spending is fine.