Krugman on Spending

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/10/krugman-on-spending

From Paul Krugman's New York Times column: "The whole story is a myth. There never was a big expansion of government spending....the big government expansion everyone talks about never happened....there has been a disinformation campaign from the right, based on the usual combination of fact-free assertions and cooked numbers."

Does President Obama's own White House Office of Management and Budget count as part of the right-wing disinformation campaign? Look at the OMB's historical tables. From an earlier FutureOfCapitalism.com post:

In 2000, federal outlays were $1.789 trillion, or 18.2% of GDP. In 2011, under Mr. Obama's budget, they will be $3.834 trillion, or 25.1% of GDP. This is a big increase. Using the Office of Management and Budget's 2005 constant dollars, 2000 spending was $2.041 trillion, while 2011 spending will be $3.369 trillion -- a big jump even if you adjust for inflation. ...these are staggering numbers. If someone had told me back in 2000 that in ten years a president would be proposing a budget that spends $2.1 trillion more than President Clinton did in his last year in office -- in other words, that on a nominal basis, federal spending would more than double in the coming decade -- I'd have looked at them like they were nuts, totally nuts.

by Ira Stoll  |  Oct 11, 2010 at 11:05 am Related Topics:  Paul Krugman, President Obama receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list