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| Source:Think Progress- with a look at the United States Federal budget. |
“The idea that the United States has an out of control spending problem has gripped Washington D.C. for most of the economic recovery, and nowhere is that more evident than in recent budget negotiations, where the conversation has been almost solely about when budgets will balance and by how much they will reduce the debt. […]/p…
From Think Progress
Leave it up to Think Progress to only report half of the story, which is why I only use them to gage what so-called Progressives (who aren’t very progressive) are thinking in America.
Michael Waldron only covered the discretionary side of the Federal budget. For anyone who that might sound like Greek who doesn’t speak Greek: the discretionary side of the Federal budget is non-national security and so-called entitlement spending. Things like infrastructure, research, education funding, and so-forth. Which is about half of the Federal budget. (Give or take)
According to Michael Waldron of Think Progress, the Federal budget has fallen over the last two years, which is true thanks to the Budget Control Act of 2011. But he didn’t take into account or report how much the Federal budget has grown overall since 2001.
When President Obama took office in 2009, the Federal budget represented around 22% of the American economy. Thats if you don’t include Afghanistan and Iraq, its much higher than that if you do. But the Bush Administration never bothered to put those wars on budget or pay for them.
What the Obama Administration along with their efforts to respond to the Great Recession with the American Recovery Act of 2009-10, they also put the wars on budget and the Affordable Care Act of 2010 on budget which was paid for. So I would argue that they were correct to increase the Federal budget over that period to deal with the economy and healthcare. And we’ve seen the benefits of both but Federal spending under President Obama went up in his first two years.
This is according to the Congressional Budget Office, when President Clinton left office in 2001: the Federal budget represented around twenty percent of the American economy. Under President Bush, we grew to twenty two percent thanks to Medicare Advantage, No Child Left Behind, Hurricane Katrina. But again if you include Afghanistan and Iraq it’s higher the 22%.
The last two years, the Federal budget has come down by roughly ten percent thanks to the Budget Control Act, but we are still at a higher level than we were in 2001, when the economy was still in good shape with more people working.
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