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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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From: Dale Baker1/8/2012 5:09:25 PM
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Typical level of Romney factuality:

“Government at all levels, during the days of John F. Kennedy, consumed 27 percent of our economy, about a quarter. Today it consumes 37 percent of our economy. We’re only inches away from no longer being a free economy.” --Romney

Romney recycles a line from one of the earliest debates, though some people might be confused by the word “consume” to mean taxes. In the past, he has used this fact to talk about government spending.

He gets his statistics essentially right, according to White House historical records ( see table 15.5), but the numbers are missing context. In 1961, there was no Medicare and Social Security only made up about 2 percent of the overall economy (the Gross Domestic Product.) Excluding other payments to individuals and national defense, overall federal spending was also just 2 percent of the economy. (State and local spending was nearly 9 percent of the economy.)

Fast forward to today. Social Security and Medicare are more than 8 percent of the economy. National defense has fallen in half, to 5 percent of the economy. The other functions of the federal government (i.e., excluding payments to individuals and defense) has actually fallen to just 1.6 percent of GDP. So the federal government in many ways is actually smaller.

Romney’s statement that the United States is “inches away” from not having a free economy is simply rhetorical nonsense.
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