Quote:
Originally Posted by Willravel
You have to measure it as budget compared to GDP or per capita in order to compare us to other countries. As of 2009, tax collections were only 15% of the GDP, which is frighteningly low, in fact it's the lowest in half a century. We can compare that the the rapid inflation of debt, which is of course relevant, but please don't pretend that somehow the government was small under Bush and suddenly massive under Obama. That simply isn't so. It was small-medium under Bush and now it's slightly more medium but still small under Obama.
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Government spending as a percentage of GDP in the U.S. is sitting anywhere between 21 and 25% even after Obama's spending, which is indeed extremely low compared to most other developed nation (Russia is an exception, but they do spend more). If you do the comparisons, you will find the U.S. is sitting amongst many developing nations.
It's not so much that the U.S. overspends, it's that it undertaxes with regard to its budgetary and social spending targets, under both Bush jr.
and Obama.
They call the U.S. the richest land in the history of the world; it's too bad it's a nation of misers and penny-pinchers. This is an exaggeration, I know, but you get the point.