The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in… Read More
The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in fiscal year 2009; the U.S. federal deficit is projected to be more than 13% of GDP in 2009 and close to 10% in 2010. And there’s a catch: both the CBO and the White House are assuming the U.S. economy grows by an average rate of more than +4% over the coming decade, a generous assumption given current economic conditions. This skews the numbers in terms of percent of GDP — actual federal spending is projected to rise from a… Read More