Читать книгу Northern Light: Lessons for America from Canada's Fiscal Fix - Robert P. Murphy - Страница 28

Here the trend is upward from the early 1930s, with another huge bulge during World War II. The slowdown in absolute spending growth shows up here as a leveling off and then a sharp decline during the Reagan-Clinton era, dropping from 23.5 percent of GDP in 1984 to 18.2 percent in FY 2002. Yet within the first Bush Administration the trend quickly reversed again, steadily rising until hitting a peak of 25.2 percent in FY 2010 (under Barack Obama) and falling to 24.1 percent in FY 2011. Note that this slight pullback still places federal spending as a share of the economy at the highest level (save the prior year) since 1946.

In addition to surveying the general growth of federal spending, it is also instructive to look at a detailed breakdown by major spending category. Figure 1.3 shows the evolution of federal spending since 1972.

Figure 1.3 US federal budget by major spending category, FY 1972–2011 (billions nominal USD)