Nice Growth You Have There

Jeffrey Dorfman ran the growth numbers on President Obama’s new budget, and we can all be grateful that the ugly beast is likely DOA:

Based on the most recent projections from the Congressional Budget Office, mandatory spending is expected to increase by $220 billion in the next fiscal year and net interest expenses are predicted to rise by $49 billion. Thus, what President Obama is really proposing is a spending increase of $343 billion. That would be an increase of over 9% above this year’s levels and would result in the first $4 trillion budget in American history.

More relevantly, perhaps, with economic growth running at about 3%, the economy is adding about $530 billion to GDP annually. If you think about that as the new income that could go to either the private sector or the government, President Obama is proposing that the government take charge of 65% of the new money available in the economy.

I believe Obama’s attitude towards allowing us to keep 35% of our economic growth is best encapsulated by his earlier quote, “You should be thanking me.”