But that's not as useful a frame when you're talking about inflation because in that case the number of nominal dollars matters. Saying that real spending is fl

But that's not as useful a frame when you're talking about inflation because in that case the number of nominal dollars matters. Saying that real spending is flat during a period of inflation sounds like something neutral is happening, when really you're increasing the number of nominal dollars being spent into the economy. Doubly so when you're running a deficit. It's also implying that the government decides it needs ten artillery rounds and then allocates that amount of money, instead of determining how much money it can get away with spending/borrowing and then having various interest groups fight over who gets it. If it was the first one then there would be non-trivial periods when real government spending goes down because the need for some existing program declines and it gets reduced or removed without being replaced by anything, right?