Comments on: Annie Lowrey on the Capital of the Empire http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/annie-lowrey-on-the-capital-of-the-empire/ taking the most charitable view of those who disagree Mon, 21 Dec 2020 16:41:22 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.32 By: wophugus http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/annie-lowrey-on-the-capital-of-the-empire/#comment-7469 Thu, 17 Jan 2013 02:43:48 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=437#comment-7469 Federal spending as a percent of GDP fell every year Clinton was President. I think it ultimately fell a couple of a couple percentage points. A lot of that was GDP growth, but real federal spending per capita also fell between 1992 and 2000, though less dramatically, and fell even more if you go back to 1990. The federal government simply spent less per person over the course of the 90’s. The peace dividend was a real thing.

In the present, we just did 2.3 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years with 75 percent of it coming from spending cuts.

Then from an international perspective, it happens all the time. For example, UK spending as a percent of GDP plummeted under thatcher and kept plummeting, dropping 13 percentage points over the 80’s and 90’s.

So yeah, there’s no magical political economy problem that makes government grow forever and ever or protects programs, once created, from ever being cut. People like the welfare state. They also like having a productive economy. Lots of countries thread that needle.

And again, in this particular case it is especially silly to say “if we did stimulus we’d never see those programs done away with” when we are seeing a lot of the last stimulus done away with. Good bye, payroll tax break!

]]> By: Arnold Kling http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/annie-lowrey-on-the-capital-of-the-empire/#comment-7381 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:27:42 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=437#comment-7381 I recall lots of folks opposed to the Bush tax cuts. I do not recall anyone opposed to spending. My assessment is that the main reason that the budget did so well is that revenue came in unexpectedly high. Once they saw that they had more revenue, Congress seemed eager to spend.

]]> By: Wophugus http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/annie-lowrey-on-the-capital-of-the-empire/#comment-7358 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:40:15 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=437#comment-7358 On point three, a. The initial stimulus is, in fact, subsiding (and defecit reduction is taking its place), so why is it unemaginable a second round could?; b a lot of the people arguing for stimulus served in the Clinton administration, and did in fact move towards a budget surplus and a lower ratio of federal spending to gdp when times were good, then opposed spending increases under bush. Seems unfair to say keynsians don’t really want to reign in spending during booms.

]]> By: Vacslav http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/annie-lowrey-on-the-capital-of-the-empire/#comment-7257 Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:49:01 +0000 http://www.arnoldkling.com/blog/?p=437#comment-7257 3. Government spending is considered “public good” using Buchanan’s terms, and thus cannot be constrained. Here, Ch.3/Reason of Rules : “to the extent that a prejudgment has been made to the effect that majoritarian voting rules are more efficient in generating “public good” than are any of the alternative forms of political authority (for example, hereditary monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, rule by committee of a single party, or dictatorship by a military junta), any constitutional constraints on the “will of the majority” will tend to be opposed. “

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