More Modest Growth In State Spending Can Facilitate Further Tax Relief

White House officials recently confirmed to reporters that the federal government’s budget deficit nearly doubled over the past year, rising from $1 trillion to $2 trillion. Some see this as proof that some taxpayers aren’t paying enough. Others see it as another indicator the government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem, which is a point made so often over the years in American political debates, often by conservatives, that it can now sound cliché to some. But historical data for federal and state spending support the assertion.

Over the past decade, from 2013 to 2022, federal spending rose by 69.4%, more than three times faster than the rate of population growth plus inflation during that period, which was 21.6%. If Congress, along with the Obama and Trump administrations, had limited the growth in spending to the rate of population growth plus inflation during the last decade, the 2022 federal budget would’ve been $1.6 trillion less than it actually was.