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Take My Breath Away

29th April
2009
written by Sean Noble

The House and Senate celebrated Obama’s 100th day in office by passing the largest federal budget in U.S. history. At a staggering $3.4 TRILLION it is $300 billion more than last year’s budget. Wow.  That is growth of government that should make former AZ Governor Janet Napolitano proud.

To give you some perspective, when I was toiling on Capitol Hill staffing my boss on the Budget committee in 1997, the federal budget was about $1.5 trillion.  As recently as 2000 the federal budget was $1.7 trillion – HALF of what passed today.  Think about that.  In nine short years we have DOUBLED the size of the federal government. That is breathtaking, and not in a good way.

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Congress, economics, obama, politics

7 Comments

  1. Amanda
    29/04/2009

    And unless Republicans get their act together and start winning elections again, it’s only going to get larger every year. Scary thought.

  2. Emily
    29/04/2009

    Yes, but who controlled the House, Senate and White House 2001-2007? Republicans! We spent more on domestic programs in the Bush years than Clinton could have ever dreamed. So let’s look in the mirror and recommit to conservative basics before we govern again.

  3. Matthew
    29/04/2009

    Amanda — the budget doubled in the last 10 years — not the last 100 days. Why do you think that putting Republicans in control would rectify the growing budget? I think the data would suggest the Republicans are more inept at controlling costs then the Democrats over the past 30 years.

  4. Amanda
    29/04/2009

    Excuse me, Matthew, I should have said that if FISCAL CONSERVATIVES don’t get elected, it will keep getting worse- and much faster.

  5. Zach
    29/04/2009

    At the risk of exposing my ignorance, is it possible to shrink the size of government once it has gotten so big? Has it been done before? Even if fiscally conservative people go to Washington will that matter now?

  6. Matthew
    29/04/2009

    Zach — that is the real issue isn’t it? If a politician is to vote against a program of any sort, it is usually played against them in elections. Lets say I vote to cut Kindergarten from full to half day, then the next election cycle my opponent will point out that I don’t really care about children, right? In order for Government to be cut, voters need to be smarter on both sides of the aisle.

    –
    Amanda, no need to yell. I am not sure how many fiscal conservatives there are. I cant think of any in the past presidential election. Even Romney campaigned with very little cuts to the budget.

  7. Thane Eichenauer
    01/05/2009

    Zach – I’ll give you an simpler answer. Yes it is possible to shrink the size of government. The only items missing from the recipe are a will and a method.

    http://www.downsizedc.com/

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