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And yet, govt spending as percentage of GDP is the biggest it's ever been! AT a whopping 44% total: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spend

And yet, govt spending as percentage of GDP is the biggest it's ever been! AT a whopping 44% total: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spendi... Just federal alone is 30%! just google: "govt spend as percentage of GDP" I think the american public has been sold on the idea that govt should be bigger and bigger and more bloated than ever. Most people either approve or just don't care.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
The vast majority of that spending is in one of three categories: Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Yet that isn't what is being cut in the name of "Government too big!". In fact, those categories only seem to be growing in cost with no apparent measures by the GOP to curb them.
- rootusrootus 4y ago
  > Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Three areas of government that have broad bipartisan support. The right wants smaller government, in theory, but they also want to "keep the government out of my Medicare!" So the spending isn't ever going to down, only up.
  - corrral 4y ago
    Republican dislike of social programs (I mean their voters, not the politicians) is largely a marketing thing, not based on what the programs actually do. You poll people on whether they support Social Program X, you get a very different result from if you describe a hypothetical program that just happens to do exactly what Social Program X does, and ask them if they would support that. For extra comedic value you can also ask if they'd like to replace Program They Hate with this new program that's identical. A similar hating-the-label-not-the-thing effect is how you get nonsensical shit like people apparently thinking Medicare isn't "socialized medicine". If they like it, it must not be [Bad Thing].
s1artibartfast 4y ago
I often think about this when people claim more funding is the solution to problems. There is a hard cap on taxation and if you were to tax every cent of GDP you would only double the budget.
asciimov 4y ago
If we were getting good value for our dollar I would agree that we are spending too much. Even though we spend the most out of any country on things like medical care and our military, we aren't getting a good return on investment. Large corporate interests have greased enough government wheels to keep the big payouts rolling their way. If you want to decrease spending, fine lets start by lowering the costs of medical care and medicines, and start looking at getting better value out of our military spending.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago

The vast majority of that spending is in one of three categories: Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Yet that isn't what is being cut in the name of "Government too big!". In fact, those categories only seem to be growing in cost with no apparent measures by the GOP to curb them.

rootusrootus 4y ago
> Social Security, Medicare, and the Military. Three areas of government that have broad bipartisan support. The right wants smaller government, in theory, but they also want to "keep the government out of my Medicare!" So the spending isn't ever going to down, only up.
- corrral 4y ago
  Republican dislike of social programs (I mean their voters, not the politicians) is largely a marketing thing, not based on what the programs actually do. You poll people on whether they support Social Program X, you get a very different result from if you describe a hypothetical program that just happens to do exactly what Social Program X does, and ask them if they would support that. For extra comedic value you can also ask if they'd like to replace Program They Hate with this new program that's identical. A similar hating-the-label-not-the-thing effect is how you get nonsensical shit like people apparently thinking Medicare isn't "socialized medicine". If they like it, it must not be [Bad Thing].

s1artibartfast 4y ago

I often think about this when people claim more funding is the solution to problems. There is a hard cap on taxation and if you were to tax every cent of GDP you would only double the budget.

asciimov 4y ago

If we were getting good value for our dollar I would agree that we are spending too much. Even though we spend the most out of any country on things like medical care and our military, we aren't getting a good return on investment. Large corporate interests have greased enough government wheels to keep the big payouts rolling their way. If you want to decrease spending, fine lets start by lowering the costs of medical care and medicines, and start looking at getting better value out of our military spending.