fbpx
10.17.2011 0

Federal spending increased 5% this year

Our National Debt

To all those who believe that the federal government has cut back in these tough economic times, it is simply just a myth. In reality, the federal government has increased spending by 5% this year:

When Republicans took control of the House in January, they pledged to make deep cuts in federal spending, and in April they succeeded in getting a bill advertised as cutting $38 billion from fiscal 2011’s budget. Then in August, they pushed for a deal to cut another $2.4 trillion over the next decade.

Some analysts have blamed these spending cuts for this year’s economic slowdown.

But data released by the Treasury Department on Friday show that, so far, there hasn’t been any spending cuts at all.

In fact, in the first nine months of this year, federal spending was $120 billion higher than in the same period in 2010, the data show. That’s an increase of almost 5%. And deficits during this time were $23.5 billion higher.

These spending hikes haven’t stopped many analysts from claiming that the country is in an age of budget austerity, one that’s hurting economic growth.

Just remember all the way back to February of this year when 92 House Republicans joined with House Democrats to strike down a measure that would have cut nearly $100 billion from the federal budget

This increase in spending should put to rest the claims from those that believe more spending leads to increased economic growth. If that was indeed correct, the economy should be growing by leaps and bounds as the amount of spending continues to increase. This “theory” has been laid to rest in the garbage can of history–and sadly, it’s the same garbage can that Congress turns to whenever they need to implement policy.

The Washington money machine that is operated by Congress continues to run as normal.

Copyright © 2008-2024 Americans for Limited Government