After weeks of stalling, Democratic leaders are finally expressing willingness to engage with Republicans in the government ...

Top Trump administration officials are arguing that it is misleading to include government spending in the quarterly tally of GDP. It sets up a clash between the administration and economists over ...

In other words, this spending bill demonstrates the determination of President Trump and the congressional Republicans who wrote it to actually reduce the growth of government spending.

But these trims are wrapped in a document that nevertheless sustains a bloated government. Even with the reductions, 2026 discretionary spending would remain essentially unchanged at $1.6 trillion.

In the GDP report, government spending accounts for almost one-fifth of people’s personal income, which totaled more than $24.6 trillion last year.

The chart, dubiously describing the tax credits as “IRS Welfare,” depicted a big jump in 2018, another big jump in 2020, and a peak in 2021.

Flows in and out of government coffers are volatile. In nominal terms spending naturally rises over time, pushed up by inflation. Perhaps outflows would have been even larger in the absence of DOGE.