The other day in the Washington Post, there was an article which tried to explain how ineffective the Tea Party and the Republicans have been in cutting the size of government. In truth, the article was a liberal fantasy; the actual fact is that there has been great success in cutting the size of government given the constraints that were faced by the GOP and the Tea Party. Here are a few facts that make this point:
1. In absolute terms, federal spending this year will be lower than it was two years ago. It is not a big reduction; the cut is less than ten billion dollars, but it is a cut nevertheless.
2. Adjusted for inflation, the cut in federal spending over the last two years is 5%. Again, this is not an enormous cut, but it is still a major accomplishment.
3. During the first two years of the Obama presidency, spending by the federal government grew by about half a trillion dollars. Those were the years when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
4. Had the normal baseline budgeting process been followed with increases in expenditures kicking in automatically, the federal budget would have increased by about $400 billion dollars during the last two years.
5. If nothing else is done, the sequester and the other cuts made in spending will result in the continued lowering of spending levels in the future. There is no need for further fighting; these laws are already in place.
6. The periodic fights over tax levels held in the face of looming "expirations" of prior tax cuts are over. The lower tax levels for 99.4% of Americans were made permanent. Even the tax rates for the remaining 0.6% were made permanent after a small increase.
So, if one puts all this together, what can one conclude? Were the Republicans and the Tea Party failures? Not at all. They managed to get federal spending under control while holding only half of one of the three branches of government. Had the GOP held the Senate and the presidency as well, the cuts would surely have been bigger; there is no doubt about this. Nevertheless, these folks did accomplish much. The fact that the liberals now feel compelled to tell lies to each other in the pages of the WaPo actually underscores just how successful the Tea Party and GOP really have been.
1. In absolute terms, federal spending this year will be lower than it was two years ago. It is not a big reduction; the cut is less than ten billion dollars, but it is a cut nevertheless.
2. Adjusted for inflation, the cut in federal spending over the last two years is 5%. Again, this is not an enormous cut, but it is still a major accomplishment.
3. During the first two years of the Obama presidency, spending by the federal government grew by about half a trillion dollars. Those were the years when the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress.
4. Had the normal baseline budgeting process been followed with increases in expenditures kicking in automatically, the federal budget would have increased by about $400 billion dollars during the last two years.
5. If nothing else is done, the sequester and the other cuts made in spending will result in the continued lowering of spending levels in the future. There is no need for further fighting; these laws are already in place.
6. The periodic fights over tax levels held in the face of looming "expirations" of prior tax cuts are over. The lower tax levels for 99.4% of Americans were made permanent. Even the tax rates for the remaining 0.6% were made permanent after a small increase.
So, if one puts all this together, what can one conclude? Were the Republicans and the Tea Party failures? Not at all. They managed to get federal spending under control while holding only half of one of the three branches of government. Had the GOP held the Senate and the presidency as well, the cuts would surely have been bigger; there is no doubt about this. Nevertheless, these folks did accomplish much. The fact that the liberals now feel compelled to tell lies to each other in the pages of the WaPo actually underscores just how successful the Tea Party and GOP really have been.
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