Bob
SoWal Insider
Debate on political rebellion - Our view: Tea Party activists take aim, but many miss target - Opinion - USATODAY.com Our view on political rebellion: Tea Party activists take aim, but many miss target
Rolling back Big Government is really about health care costs.
As Tea Party activists gather for this weekend's convention in Nashville, it is safe to say that shrinking the federal government will be foremost in their minds. After all, to the extent that the group has a core organizing principle, it is that Washington has gotten too big.
And yet, apart from the surging bills that Washington absorbs for health care, the surprising reality is that Big Government isn't all that big by historical standards. Even with an economic stimulus, a bank bailout and two wars, non-medical spending by the federal government is a smaller percentage of the economy than it was during most of Ronald Reagan's administration.
In just a few years, as the stimulus shrinks and the economy expands, government spending outside of health care will drop to about 16% of the economy, roughly where it has been since the mid-1990s. By contrast, even though Reagan began paring back government, non-medical spending hovered around 20% of the economy during his administration.
The reason for this is no mystery, even if it's not part of the daily political narrative. As the government's medical tab surged from $72 billion in 1980 to an estimated $912 billion in 2010, traditional government functions ? things like roads, criminal justice and education ? had to be more tightly controlled simply to avoid the kind of outlandish deficits we've seen in recent years.
In that sense, the Tea Partiers are barking up the wrong trees. If their goal is to control spending, they should be demanding curbs in Medicare and answering President Obama's call for health care reform with counterproposals heavier on cost control.
Tea Partiers also say taxes are too high, but here, too, perception differs from reality, at least by history's measure. In 2009 and 2010, tax receipts collected by Washington will total 14.8% of the economy. That is the lowest since 1950.
If the activists truly want to reduce the deficit, they should be demanding that the two parties work together. With the minority party always poised to attack when the majority sticks its neck out, nothing gets done......they are too busy cashing their social security checks
Rolling back Big Government is really about health care costs.
As Tea Party activists gather for this weekend's convention in Nashville, it is safe to say that shrinking the federal government will be foremost in their minds. After all, to the extent that the group has a core organizing principle, it is that Washington has gotten too big.
And yet, apart from the surging bills that Washington absorbs for health care, the surprising reality is that Big Government isn't all that big by historical standards. Even with an economic stimulus, a bank bailout and two wars, non-medical spending by the federal government is a smaller percentage of the economy than it was during most of Ronald Reagan's administration.
In just a few years, as the stimulus shrinks and the economy expands, government spending outside of health care will drop to about 16% of the economy, roughly where it has been since the mid-1990s. By contrast, even though Reagan began paring back government, non-medical spending hovered around 20% of the economy during his administration.
The reason for this is no mystery, even if it's not part of the daily political narrative. As the government's medical tab surged from $72 billion in 1980 to an estimated $912 billion in 2010, traditional government functions ? things like roads, criminal justice and education ? had to be more tightly controlled simply to avoid the kind of outlandish deficits we've seen in recent years.
In that sense, the Tea Partiers are barking up the wrong trees. If their goal is to control spending, they should be demanding curbs in Medicare and answering President Obama's call for health care reform with counterproposals heavier on cost control.
Tea Partiers also say taxes are too high, but here, too, perception differs from reality, at least by history's measure. In 2009 and 2010, tax receipts collected by Washington will total 14.8% of the economy. That is the lowest since 1950.
If the activists truly want to reduce the deficit, they should be demanding that the two parties work together. With the minority party always poised to attack when the majority sticks its neck out, nothing gets done......they are too busy cashing their social security checks
