Sign of the times

I'm on my lunch break looking over the OMB's budget report (PDF WARNING) for fiscal year 2011. (geeky I know...)  It contains, among other things, some neat little tables regarding government revenue and expenditures.  I've noticed a few things of interest that require a more lengthy post where I'll try not to bore you too much with the numbers.  Actually, if it bores you then oh well.  It's important!

Here's one big thing that sticks out like a sore thumb and really puts our current debt crisis into perspective.

Table 15.3 on page 352 is "Total Government Expenditures as Percentages of GDP: 1948-2009"

Total government outlays in 2009, Obama's 1st year in office, were 24.7 % of GDP.  Looking at the numbers you'll quickly notice that in 2009, Federal spending as a percentage of GDP was higher than it's been in 63 years.

Also, for those "Bush ruined our economy" folks, Table 15.1 shows us that as a percentage of GDP, federal government receipts (money the government took in)  were higher in every year of Bush's two terms than they were during Obama's first year in office.  (yes, even with those "evil" Bush tax cuts)

So, we see that over Bush's entire time in office tax revenues were higher than Obama's first year AND government spending was lower than Obama's first year.  Given that simple observation is it any wonder why we're in a debt crisis?!

Always look at the facts people!  They'll usually show you that politicians, especially liberal Democrats, are full of shit.