Wait, you can’t do that. You say “percentage of GDP” and then include “state” and “local” governments into your math. GDP is a measurement of the entire country.
You said “government spending” is almost 40% of GDP. Most people would say that’s the FEDERAL government. Your citation says that the FEDERAL government is spending 27.56% of GDP. (The CBO and BEA have different figures for federal government spending – $2.293t, or a little less than 20% GDP, the total for ALL governments put together is 36.1% GDP.)
So, the reason you’re deceptive here is that you’re counting things (such as tourism dollars to Florida which the Florida government spends) as “government spending”. It’s accurate, but woefully deceptive because it’s not money that is coming out of my pocket living in Washington State (as this comic tries to put forth). I certainly don’t pay for things happening in Maryland; the Maryland people do.
(Interestingly enough, your citation also says that government spending [fed, state, and local], as a percentage of GDP, goes DOWN while a Democrat is president and goes UP while a Republican is president.)
I see a drop during Carter’s term, a raise during Reagan’s term, a leveling off during Bush 1’s term, a drop during Cinton’s term, a raise during Bush 2’s term, and a predicted drop during Obama’s term.
“$6,383.1 / $14,291.0 = 44.66%”
Wait, you can’t do that. You say “percentage of GDP” and then include “state” and “local” governments into your math. GDP is a measurement of the entire country.
You said “government spending” is almost 40% of GDP. Most people would say that’s the FEDERAL government. Your citation says that the FEDERAL government is spending 27.56% of GDP. (The CBO and BEA have different figures for federal government spending – $2.293t, or a little less than 20% GDP, the total for ALL governments put together is 36.1% GDP.)
So, the reason you’re deceptive here is that you’re counting things (such as tourism dollars to Florida which the Florida government spends) as “government spending”. It’s accurate, but woefully deceptive because it’s not money that is coming out of my pocket living in Washington State (as this comic tries to put forth). I certainly don’t pay for things happening in Maryland; the Maryland people do.
(Interestingly enough, your citation also says that government spending [fed, state, and local], as a percentage of GDP, goes DOWN while a Democrat is president and goes UP while a Republican is president.)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Usgovspendinghistory1902_2010.png
I see a drop during Carter’s term, a raise during Reagan’s term, a leveling off during Bush 1’s term, a drop during Cinton’s term, a raise during Bush 2’s term, and a predicted drop during Obama’s term.
Hmmm….