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Government Is Shrinking?
08/03/12 In today’s political climate, the more implausible the claim, the more likely it is to stick. One that seems to be sticking now is that government today is small by historical standards and constantly shrinking.
Run that one by the man on the street — looted by the tax man, harassed by police, hounded by regulators — and he will scoff. Now comes the highbrow journalist with a nuanced view to correct him, citing all kinds of complex data.
The highbrow in this case is Catherine Rampell, writing in The New York Times. Her claim seems apodictically certain. “Government has been shrinking steadily for two years,” she says, “and compared to the size of the overall economy, government is actually slightly smaller today than it has been on average in the postwar era.”
Huh? Well, she provides data of “the percentage change in total government spending and investment” as compared with the change in the GDP. She shows GDP rises and government falls. Wow, amazing.
Not so fast. You can always know that when people claim that government is small, it will always appear small by comparison to the GDP, which is to say that anything looks small by comparison to anything (in the words of economist Roger Garrison).
jeckelmyhyde
August 5th, 2012
Maybe I can get this broad to tell me my diet is working by comparing my fat arse to something much much bigger,……say Michelle O’s arse.
serfer62
August 5th, 2012
I can see her point…but you need to use a X-ray on her to see it.
Honest Politicians 4 Sale
August 5th, 2012
Catherine Rampell should lay off the drugs.
66chevelle
August 5th, 2012
I just heard some “financial advisor” guy on the radio today say talking up the “good” job-created numbers that came out this week. But he tempered it with the admonishment that the net gain was not as good as it could have been, because “Federal Govt employment shrank by 9,000 jobs. And you could tell by the way he was saying it that he wanted everybody listening to know Obama was diligently shrinking the federal budget at great political cost. Because he cares so much.
I expect this “Honey, O Shrunk the Government” Talking Point to be spewing from the Carney-barker’s piehole next week, and thence unquestioned to the wider MSM stenography pool