The chart at the right shows spending relative to GDP<\/a>. Looking at these numbers relative to GDP is the only sensible approach as it takes into account the dollars relative to the size and strength of the country’s economy.\u00a0 What’s clear from the chart is that we are on the line that extends back for a century.\u00a0 The two big blips are the World Wars, but otherwise, spending growth is relatively constant.\u00a0 It’s also interesting to note that one of the only extended declines in spending was during the Clinton administration in the 1990s.\u00a0 We’ve since squandered that, which does lend credence to the claim that spending has increased dramatically in recent years.\u00a0 But it would still be difficult to characterize this as run away spending.\u00a0 Especially considering we are already seeing a downturn in spending because of the expiration of most of the stimulus programs.<\/p>\n Still, it’s also important to recognize the slope of this spending line is ultimately unsustainable.\u00a0 Eventually, this line will cross 100% and keep on going.\u00a0 And realistically, we need to flatten it out long before then.\u00a0 So yes, make some tough priority choices, strive for efficiency, and reduce waste because ultimately we do need to flatten this line out.<\/p>\n In part, this loss of income is attributable to the economic downturn, but it is attributable in larger part to the many tax cuts passed.\u00a0 So while we may argue that some of our deficits are caused by economic realities, a non-trivial chunk are caused by our choices.\u00a0 We are choosing to be broke, or at least choosing to be as broke as we are.<\/p>\n Think of this in the framework of a typical 2-income household.\u00a0 As a couple, you decide you need to get your spending under control as its year-on-year growth is not sustainable, but you just can’t bring yourselves to contain your spendthrift habits.\u00a0 So you decide to have your spouse quit their job.\u00a0\u00a0 For a while you continue to spend at your old rate anyway because your credit cards have not maxed out.\u00a0 And it is only when they do that you force yourselves to cut back.\u00a0 Yet now you have to cut back to one-income levels, and you are also saddled with interest payments on all the debt your racked up.<\/p>\n Mission accomplished?\u00a0 In what reality?\u00a0 We need to get spending under control.\u00a0 We have a revenue problem<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We are not in the midst of a period of out of control spending. We are in a period of unprecedented loss of income.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[44,54,21,43,22,41],"class_list":["post-3499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-2010-elections","tag-congress","tag-conservatives","tag-economic-policy","tag-political-ideology","tag-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3499"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3505,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3499\/revisions\/3505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timscogitorium.com\/tinblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>On the other side of the equation though, look at the revenue graph<\/a>.\u00a0 There has been a precipitous drop in revenue over the last decade.\u00a0 As a percent of GDP, revenues have not been this low in 50 years.<\/p>\n