The Bush budget is out, and right now I don't have anything exciting to say about the details. But I do recommend the Historical Tables,which show how the government has grown (and occasionally shrunk) over time. A couple of things that grabbed me from Table 1.2:
1. Even if you believe the Bush projections, government will be bigger in 2010 that it was when Bush took office. In FY 2001, government took up 18.5% of GNP. Today its at 20.3%. Bush claims it will be at 19% in FY 2010. (Of course, these sorts of projections tend to be highly optimistic).
2. The good news: either way, government far smaller than under Reagan. In the 80s, federal outlays took up 21-23% of GNP.
Posted by lewyn
at 10:34 AM EST
