Government Spending Growth: Are Taxpayers The Proverbial Frog In The Boiling Pot Of Water?
The analogy certain seems apt:
You know the story. Put a frog in hot water and he’ll jump out, but put him in cooler water and slowly raise the heat and he’ll stay in even as he boils to death. Are we frogs starting to boil in government stew? In the midst of a Presidential campaign where we seem to be deciding who’s universal health care is more universal and who’s global climate policy is more global, maybe it’s time to check the temperature of the pot we’re in.
The nature of the slow boil is that short-term changes are not detectable. So let’s look at a longer term to see just how much hotter it’s become. Let’s look at the last century and compare its beginning with its end and to current time.
Federal spending. In 1900 federal spending was $0.5B. In 2000 it was $1,789B . Those amounts translated to 2.5% of GDP in 1900 and 21% in 2000. Government spending at all levels in the U.S. was 36.5% of GDP in 2006. That 2.5% of GDP that could sustain the entire federal government in 1900 is not even enough to cover the Medicare program today.
The Medicare program, by the way, did not exist in 1900; it was established in 1965.
Read the whole thing.
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