Since we’re still going to be focused on this narrative that the government spends too much, it is worth a look to see what it is the government is spending on (thanks to TPM):
The GOP is pretending that it is the Discretionary Non-Defense piece that is driving us into a ditch. It isn’t. It is mainly DOD expenditures and health care expenditures that are the problem. Unfortunately, there are way too many Democrats who appear to have bought into this. (Senator Coons is here talking about “reforming entitlements” and “domestic spending”; at least Rep. Carney is clear about the need for additional revenues.) As revenues have decreased over the past decade, the one sector of the government that has grown like topsy is the DOD. Even health care expenditures didn’t grow as much as DOD spending did, and we know how fast health care costs have been shooting up.
This deficit hysteria isn’t producing one single job.