source: CATO Tax & Budget Bulletin 56
Edwards explains:
Federal spending is growing by leaps and bounds. The budget hit $3.9 trillion this year, double the level of spending just eight years ago. The government is also increasing the scope of its activities, intervening in many areas that used to be left to state and local governments, businesses, charities, and individuals.(via The Corner)
By 2008, there were 1,804 different subsidy programs in the federal budget. Hundreds of programs were added this decade--ranging from a $62 billion prescription drug plan to a $1 million anti-drug education grant--and the recent stimulus bill added even more. We are in the midst of the largest federal gold rush since the 1960s. . .
It is very sad that the nation founded on individualism and limited government has more people than ever suckling at the federal subsidy teat. President Barack Obama has proposed a wide range of new subsidies in energy, health care, and other areas. If enacted, they would take America further away from the individual reliance, voluntary charity, and entrepreneurialism that made it so prosperous in the first place.
2 comments:
And what did George Bush do for the US budget deficit during his 8-year reign?
Since you asked. . . After the 2000-03 recession and the 9/11 attacks, Bush reduced the deficit, until it started increasing again in 2008 with the credit crunch. Obama now proposes to increase the Federal budget deficit to levels that--even outside the short term--are predicted to be higher than any year under Bush.
Hint--read something other than Krugman. Got it now?
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