The Case for Dubya

[Brad De Long]

>Presidential Terms and Federal Spending, 1980-1999
>(By Fiscal Year, Percent of GDP)
>(source:  Economic and Budget Outlook, CBO, January 2000)
>
>				1976	1980	1988	1992	1999
>
>Entitlements & Other Mandatory	10.9	10.7	10.1	11.5	10.7
>
>Domestic Discretionary		4.5	4.7	3.1	3.4	3.1
>
>Defense & International		5.6	5.4	6.1	5.2	3.2
>
>Net Interest			1.5	1.9	3.0	3.2	2.5
>
>

What have we lost by going from 4.7% to 3.1% on domestic 
discretionary spending? Are we sad that we have lost these spending 
programs?

And how the blank have we managed to stay flat on entitlements 
between 1980 and 1999?

Brad DeLong