Thanks, Tea Party!

Federal spending (as a percentage of US GDP) drops close to the historical average

The federal budget is shrinking as a percentage of gross domestic product, falling just below 20 percent in the third quarter of 2014. That’s down four points from its peak of 24 percent in 2011, according to market analysis firm Strategas’ survey of recent Treasury Department data.

 

“That’s a pretty large drop in government spending,” said Daniel Clifton, head of policy research for Strategas.

 

The drop puts current federal spending close to the norm for the last half-century. While the budget has grown in absolute numbers — the omnibus spending bill passed earlier this month totaled more than $1 trillion — federal spending has averaged just over 19 percent of GDP since 1963.

 

The decline is due to a combination of factors, the main one being the restraints that were put on federal spending in 2011 as a result of the debt ceiling standoff in Congress

…for the past half-century.  Which, to be fair, is about when the Fed started its orgy of spending like a crack whore with a stolen gold card in peacetime.

Who’d have thought we’d be talking about the Johnson years as a positive baseline?

At any rate, it’s an incremental step in the right direction – thanks, in its entirety, to the Tea Party.

8 thoughts on “Thanks, Tea Party!

  1. After reading this post I feel like I was just given a pitch to buy a peaceful vacation home on the Gaza Strip.

  2. That’s good news, but it will also a talking point for Hillary. The composition of the spending is still a problem. Also, I suspect state governments are spending more and more, so the total is still likely higher.

  3. Just wait until the SCOTUS is through with Obamacare PW. Taxpayers in states that foolishly bought into the scheme (Minnesota…coff) are in for a real rude awakening.

  4. Always thought comparing anything to the “percentage of GDP” had the potential to be highly misleading. The problem math-wise with percentages is that the bigger one of the numbers is, the smaller the percentage change. Spending could go up, and the GDP could goes up, which could lead to an instance where “spending as a percentage of GDP” would actually decrease. But would that necessarily be a good thing? Who knows? You wouldn’t really know unless you compared spending to tax revenue received, rather than the GDP. But that’s how the government measures it.

  5. Really Emery?!

    I guess the fact that the dollar is now worth almost 40% less than when Obumbler implemented his fiat currency printing policy via the Fed, has escaped you.

  6. You should maybe think about having that growth removed. 2015 is definitely the year of lever up. I think maybe this year I’ll build Roko’s Basilisk

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