In other words, in 2010 the cost of government consumes 63.41 percent of national income.
Originally Posted by rCoder
I have to say something about that assertion: It-Just-Isn't-True. It isn't even Close to being true. Even if you are mostly interested in sex and a good time you might have noticed that ever since a black man was elected President of the United States, the party that is based in former Confederate States but represents the interests of the top 1-2% of the richest people in the country went completely and totally crazy. And since then has made a long series of claims that directly contradict evidence from non-Republican source about what is happening in our country. These claims, made directly or through the Rupert Murdoch media like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal or through the vast numbers of tax-exempt "think tanks" like the Heritage Society or the American Enterprise Institute cannot possibly be true. That is because they are what most people call "Lies".
![](http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/files/2010/12/US_TAXGDP1210.gif)
This is from Felix Salmon's Blog on Reuters at
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmo...day-u-s-taxes/
It shows tax revenues at about 15% of total US Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Expenditures are higher, which is why there is a deficit. You may remember that the Worst President Ever went out of office during the opening stages of a what various people are calling the Great Recession or the Lesser Depression following the Boy Geniuses of Wall Street blowing up the World Economy with their insanely reckless bets on the housing bubble. They got bailed out by the Worse Ever, an action continued by the Mr. Obama who apparently wants to make a try for that title himself. The unemployment rate remains over 9% since unemployed people do not make large enough campaign contributions to national politicians to get onto the "take calls from" list.
Here is another chart, from another source, showing the same thing:
Here is the Wikipedia entry on "list of countries by tax revenues as a percentage of GDP"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<br />
...centage_of_GDP
That is a very long table since it includes every country in the world, alphabetically. Some percentages for 2009:
US (at all levels) 24% per the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. Heritage Society puts it at 26.9%
Australia 27.1% (2008)
Japan 28.1 (2008), Heritage puts it at 27.4%, possibly for 2009
Canada 31.1%
Germany 30.7%, Heritage puts it at 40.6%
UK 34.3
Sweden 46.1 %
Denmark 48.2%
The point is the stated 60 plus percent is enormously contradicted by facts. The facts have a well known liberal bias so conservatives feel justified in relying on deeply held, very emotional "beliefs". If you would prefer facts to someone's red-faced shouted beliefs keep this in mind: the way to tell that Republican or Republican apparacthik shouting head is lying is, if his or her lips are moving, they are lying. That is what they are paid to do.