Is Federal Spending at a Post-World War II High?
Riedl trumpets the finding that federal expenditures per household, after adjustment for inflation, are at a post-World War II high. Budget analysts, however, generally do not regard expenditures-per-household as a particularly useful way to measure spending trends over long periods of time. They strongly prefer to track federal spending over extended periods as a share of the economy. When the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and analysts and economists with no ax to grind seek to assess changes in government spending and tax receipts over long periods, they generally examine changes in spending as a share of the economy, rather than changes in expenditures per household. Analysts find much less value in examining expenditures-per-household over time for two fundamental reasons. First, the economy grows over time, and household incomes rise with it. As long as federal spending does not increase as a share of the economy, it consumes no greater share of
