It isn't Republicans starving the government for money, because as others have pointed out, government spending has done nothing but go up in every measure, abs

It isn't Republicans starving the government for money, because as others have pointed out, government spending has done nothing but go up in every measure, absolute and relative, within your entire lifetime unless you're old enough to have been around for the end of World War 2. The main problem is the mandatory spending. It's exciting to write your bill declaring some funding "mandatory", but then there's nothing to be done about it.