3 ms·

This is one of the reasons that I don't like graphs of governments spending shown as percentages. There is an inherent spin in the chart. If federal spending in

by nhebb 14y ago

This is one of the reasons that I don't like graphs of governments spending shown as percentages. There is an inherent spin in the chart. If federal spending increases relative to GDP, but the constituent components of the chart remain relatively flat percentage-wise, then it misleads people to interpret the spending as flat, when it isn't.

_delirium 14y ago
Oh, I realize it's grown overall, just somehow I had thought it grew as a percentage of the budget as well, which seems not to (yet) be the case. Looks like healthcare spending (Medicare+Medicaid) is the main thing that's been gobbling up a bigger percentage.
- WildUtah 14y ago
  People talk about how Social Security and Medicare are growing out of control and threatening to ruin any possibility of a sane federal budget. That is true, but it would also be true to say that school lunches plus Medicare or NASA plus Medicare is dangerously out of control. In fact, Social Security is a tractable spending commitment. It is only Medicare that is growing like a crazy metastatic cancer. And Medicare is growing like that because health care spending is growing out of control in the private sector, in the VA, in Medicaid, and everywhere. The main drivers of health care spending are mostly not addressed by the Romney-Obama health care reform ('Obamacare') passed in 2010. Only a few minor tools to slow growth will be in the hands of federal bureaucrats and only if they have the courage to sieze them. Nobody is even talking about educating, licensing, and allowing immigration of more doctors; the USA has a very low level of practicing physicians for a first world country. Licensing regulations also prevent pharmacists and nurses from taking responsibilities for direct patient care that other countries allow them, exacerbating the problem.

3 ms·

This is one of the reasons that I don't like graphs of governments spending shown as percentages. There is an inherent spin in the chart. If federal spending in

by nhebb 14y ago

_delirium 14y ago
Oh, I realize it's grown overall, just somehow I had thought it grew as a percentage of the budget as well, which seems not to (yet) be the case. Looks like healthcare spending (Medicare+Medicaid) is the main thing that's been gobbling up a bigger percentage.
- WildUtah 14y ago
  People talk about how Social Security and Medicare are growing out of control and threatening to ruin any possibility of a sane federal budget. That is true, but it would also be true to say that school lunches plus Medicare or NASA plus Medicare is dangerously out of control. In fact, Social Security is a tractable spending commitment. It is only Medicare that is growing like a crazy metastatic cancer. And Medicare is growing like that because health care spending is growing out of control in the private sector, in the VA, in Medicaid, and everywhere. The main drivers of health care spending are mostly not addressed by the Romney-Obama health care reform ('Obamacare') passed in 2010. Only a few minor tools to slow growth will be in the hands of federal bureaucrats and only if they have the courage to sieze them. Nobody is even talking about educating, licensing, and allowing immigration of more doctors; the USA has a very low level of practicing physicians for a first world country. Licensing regulations also prevent pharmacists and nurses from taking responsibilities for direct patient care that other countries allow them, exacerbating the problem.