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Real World Economics: Data on federal government show sky isn't falling
pioneer press ^ | 11-11-12 | ed lotterman

Posted on 11/11/2012 8:12:16 AM PST by TurboZamboni

Yes, the federal government is growing, as measured by its outlays of money. However, if one compares these to the size of the overall economy, the increases are less dramatic than many claim.

Total federal outlays during the first three fiscal years of the Obama administration averaged 24 percent of Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, which measures the value of all final goods and services produced in our economy. That was an all-time high.

But 30 years ago, during the first three fiscal years of the Reagan administration, they averaged 22.5 percent. Whether an increase of 1.5 percentage points over three decades really represents out-of-control growth of government is a subjective question readers must decide for themselves, but it doesn't particularly alarm me...

(Excerpt) Read more at twincities.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: cliff; data; debt; spending
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To: txrefugee

He’s Ed LottoBS.


21 posted on 11/11/2012 9:12:58 AM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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To: TurboZamboni

Life’s great as long as you can borrow money.


22 posted on 11/11/2012 9:13:15 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: TurboZamboni

If the sky isn’t falling then why are the economic numbers falling?


23 posted on 11/11/2012 9:19:33 AM PST by CodeToad (Padme: "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.")
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To: TurboZamboni

Jeez... it’s hard to find adequate adjectives to describe how stupid this “analysis” is.

Our tax revenues have collapsed to less than 15% of GDP - meaning, we have a 9% of GDP deficit.

That’s IF we had a budget, which we don’t.

That also ignores the fact that now that the Boomers are shifting to SS/Medicare in large numbers, the deficit is about to grow upwards at rates previously unseen.

And then there’s the time bomb to end all time bombs on the budget: the interest on the debt. The Federal Reserve has crushed interest rates to absurdly low levels, and the US Treasury has responded by rolling more and more debt into the short end of the yield curve. This means that when interest rates finally go upwards again, the interest costs on the national debt portfolio will explode upwards in a very short period of time, because the Treasury will have to roll the vast majority of the debt within 7 years.


24 posted on 11/11/2012 9:22:04 AM PST by NVDave
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To: TurboZamboni

The Fed has either lied or been so incompetant... that not a single economic predictor that they publish has been correct... and they know it... and we know it... and they know that we know it... but being progressives... they will lie until the very end... even while burning in the pits of hell.

LLS


25 posted on 11/11/2012 9:30:42 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (I AM JOHN GALT)
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To: ilgipper
Agree. This is the most juvenile cherry picking I've seen in awhile. What the heck is the point, anyway--it 's OK that spending is at an all time high and growing?
26 posted on 11/11/2012 9:33:28 AM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: TurboZamboni
Dear Ed (elotterman@pioneerpress.com),

We're talking about you here --> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2958262/posts

27 posted on 11/11/2012 9:36:26 AM PST by FreeReign
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To: Fzob

That’s very true; I hear that even in the Dem bastions of local government around here.


28 posted on 11/11/2012 10:48:04 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: TurboZamboni

Pioneer Press Marxist cheerleaders will wait for a communist revolution before sounding the alarm; and then it’ll only be to herald the complete government takeover of every aspect of the American economy and American life.

There’s simply no possible way to sugarcoat it - the United States is rolling toward a cliff and no one intends to stop it.


29 posted on 11/11/2012 11:44:42 AM PST by Jack Hammer
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To: TurboZamboni
during the first three fiscal years of the Reagan administration, they averaged 22.5 percent

Yeah, and we were in a recession then, too.

Fun with statistics!

30 posted on 11/11/2012 2:07:50 PM PST by BfloGuy (Workers and consumers are, of course, identical.)
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To: BfloGuy

homelessness,scandals, recessions...none of that matters as long a Dem is pres.


31 posted on 11/11/2012 2:11:40 PM PST by TurboZamboni (Looting the future to bribe the present)
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