Thanks Bush Family

Update:  Chart below is not correct.  It's enough in error that I have deleted it.  Author explains here.

William Biggs has a bunch of charts showing historic federal outlays, but below is his chart for year-over-year changes in federal outlays per capita, adjusted for inflation:

CHART DELETED

7 Comments

  1. Mark:

    Don't forget to thank Congress. Budgets can't become law without Congress.

  2. stan:

    Bush is a dictator. Paul Krugman said so and he's a Nobel prize winning economist.

  3. Mike:

    Looks like a hockey stick graph. :)

  4. Mike:

    Looks like a hockey stick graph. :)

  5. feeblemind:

    One wonders how much, if any, the graph would change had the other side been elected president during those years. Perhaps this was the best(?) outcome?

  6. joewxboy:

    How are the outlays categorized? Which categories had their spending increased disproportionately? How much of the increase was due to war, and should that be factored out? Does the increase in outlays correspond to an increase in the growth of government, or just temporary spending? How much of that is due to an increase in tax revenues due to a decrease in taxes?

  7. bbartlog:

    I suspect, though, that he is using the official inflation figures, which are no longer reliable. Which means that the graph really shows two problems at once - undercounted inflation and increased federal outlays.