And how the blank have we managed to stay flat on entitlements
between 1980 and 1999?
Brad DeLong
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Re: am I sad, yes I've got the discretionary spending cut blues. Every author of such cuts likes to say, quality is more important than quantity. Problem is we seldom have a good idea of quality, or efficiency. Obviously with dozens of big, complicated programs and hundreds of tiny ones, any such evaluation is daunting. In the absence of such a picture, quantity defaults to the best indicator of how much good is being done.
I hope to have a picture of how composition has changed over the past two decades, but I've got some other things to do first.
Re: the latter, the lack of variation is striking in light of all the hysteria fomented over health care spending growth. Every number for entitlements between 1980 and today is between 10 and 12 percent of GDP, notwithstanding the 'lumpy' S&L bailout and the states' provider taxes scam in the late 1980's (which increased Federal Medicaid payments).
mbs