What is Driving the Growth in Government Spending?

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

It is entitlements, and has been for some time. This is a good analysis by Nate Silver. I have included a few excerpts;

The most striking feature of the chart is the extraordinary amount of military spending during World War II (and to a lesser extent, during World War I). Even after World War II, however, military spending constituted the outright majority of federal government spending until 1969.

Military spending makes up closer to 24 percent of federal expenditures today. That’s up from the near-term low from 1998 to 2001, when it made up about 20 percent of federal spending. (One contributor to the budget surpluses achieved briefly during the Clinton administration was a peace dividend in the interim between the cold war and the Sept. 11 attacks.) And military spending in the United States has generally been rising relative to inflation and remains very high relative to most other nations. But over the longer term, it has fallen slightly relative to the gross domestic product, and substantially relative to other types of government spending.

Another surprise is how little we are paying in interest on the federal debt, even though the debt is growing larger and larger. Right now, interest payments make up only about 6 percent of the federal budget. In addition, they have been decreasing as a share of the gross domestic product: the federal government spent about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in paying interest on its debt on 2011, down from a peak of 3.3 percent in 1991.

How is this possible? The reason is that although the government is borrowing a lot of money, it is doing so very cheaply because interest rates are low both over all and on government debt specifically. We’re now spending less than 2 percent of the principal annually to service our debt, down from a peak of close to 7 percent in the early 1980s. Borrowing costs aren’t expected to remain this low forever, so this ratio is bound to increase some. Fortunately, much of the debt we have issued has relatively long maturities, meaning that we have locked in low rates. (This won’t necessarily apply to future deficit spending: one of the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling would be a significant rise in borrowing costs, which would compound our debt problems later on.)

[gatorev12]

I'd be willing to wager that most people would be far more willing to slash entitlement spending--and shift the savings to infrastructure investment.

It employs people (who, in turn, pay taxes--so revenue goes up) and there's a significant return on the investment too with greater efficiency in moving people/commerce.

[g8orbill]

as long as we use baseline budgeting this will continue

[jimgata]

Just read a chart that shows for 2013 government spending for defense will be 14% of budget, 2014 12% and 2015 11%.
By the way Silver failed miserably on his super bowl prediction.

[QGator2414]

It will be interesting to see which generation says enough. Sadly each generation keeps pushing the burden onto their kids and grandkids.

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Originally Posted by QGator2414

It will be interesting to see which generation says enough. Sadly each generation keeps pushing the burden onto their kids and grandkids.

I suspect it will be when the USA is in the same shape as Greece or Spain. That will probably happen when all the youngsters that voted Obama into office reach their 50s.

Happy retirement, kids and grandkids!

[jimgata]

Not too many years in the future, the "I want it now and gimmee, gimmee generation", will be yelling "why me"? There is a price to pay for living on a charge card.
Do student loans ring a bell?

[Dreamliner]

Waiting for liberals to savage their own fair-haired boy.

[mocgator]

But..... but..... it was two unfunded wars that caused this!!!! It's Bush!!!...

What an effing joke...

[egator1245]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Waiting for liberals to savage their own fair-haired boy.

You'll be waiting forever!

[MichaelJoeWilliamson]

Another way to look at it;

[G8trGr8t]

you just want to push granny down the hill into the icy river..evil people...

libs refuse to look at or acknowledge the net interest increase from 6% to 35% over the nest 30 years.

quick,

bush.. .racism...bush...palin...wallstreet...racists...bu sh....wallstreet.. .palin.....
repeat as needed

[JerseyGator01]

I have worked for charities after working in the private sector for about ten years. So few people in the nonprofit world know how to efficiently operate. They only look at the revenue side and assume the government grant check will be there year after year, decade after decade.

[GatorJeff]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner

Waiting for liberals to savage their own fair-haired boy.

You mean the guy who showed that conservatives are clueless about probabilities and statistics?

[bluelang]

What happens when your society ages?

Right.

[QGator2414]

Originally Posted by bluelang

What happens when your society ages?

Right.

Great question. Now it would be nice if we would accept what the older generations have done to the younger ones since 1937 and sacrifice so we don't do to our kids what was done to us. Unfortunately we are too selfish and greedy to do such a thing and have doubled/tripled down (LBJ and now Obama)...

[viningsgator]

We do need to continue spending less on the military but when the government just transfers that savings to wasteful spending the net effect put us in a worse position. We need jobs, jobs and more jobs.