3.22.2006
Is Bush a Big Spender? (NYTimes.com)
By Paul Krugman
March 20, 2006
The idea that George W. Bush has been “spending like a drunken sailor” on domestic programs is in danger of becoming one of those factoids that everybody knows to be true, regardless of the evidence. (Sort of like the idea that John McCain, the third most conservative member of the Senate, is a moderate.) But the data just don’t support that claim.
Most of what you need to know is in the Congressional Budget Office’s historical budget data, http://www.cbo.gov/budget/historical.pdf. From Table 6 we learn that overall federal spending rose from 18.5 percent of G.D.P. in fiscal 2001 (which basically reflected Bill Clinton’s budget) to 20.1 percent of G.D.P. in fiscal 2005, a rise of 1.6 percentage points. However, that somewhat understates the true spending increase, because it includes interest payments, which fell because of lower interest rates. Non-interest spending rose from 16.5 to 18.6 percent of G.D.P. — 2.1 percentage points.
But where did the money go? Table 8 gives us data on discretionary spending — spending that isn’t mandated by law. Defense and international spending rose from 3.2 to 4.3 percent of G.D.P., 1.1 percentage points. So that’s more than half the spending rise, right there.
(More ... Krugman - NYT Web Journal) ¶ 08:02
March 20, 2006
The idea that George W. Bush has been “spending like a drunken sailor” on domestic programs is in danger of becoming one of those factoids that everybody knows to be true, regardless of the evidence. (Sort of like the idea that John McCain, the third most conservative member of the Senate, is a moderate.) But the data just don’t support that claim.
Most of what you need to know is in the Congressional Budget Office’s historical budget data, http://www.cbo.gov/budget/historical.pdf. From Table 6 we learn that overall federal spending rose from 18.5 percent of G.D.P. in fiscal 2001 (which basically reflected Bill Clinton’s budget) to 20.1 percent of G.D.P. in fiscal 2005, a rise of 1.6 percentage points. However, that somewhat understates the true spending increase, because it includes interest payments, which fell because of lower interest rates. Non-interest spending rose from 16.5 to 18.6 percent of G.D.P. — 2.1 percentage points.
But where did the money go? Table 8 gives us data on discretionary spending — spending that isn’t mandated by law. Defense and international spending rose from 3.2 to 4.3 percent of G.D.P., 1.1 percentage points. So that’s more than half the spending rise, right there.
(More ... Krugman - NYT Web Journal) ¶ 08:02
