"All parts of government are growing," especially the federal budget, argues Heritage Foundation economist Brian Reidl in a new Heritage report on runaway government spending.. (link in PDF).

Reidl explains that bailouts, the "stimulus" package, and expansions of entitlement programs have caused federal spending to increase at a pace not seen since World War II.



» For more charts, check out Heritage's Federal Budget Chart Book..

Here are some alarming statistics Riedl dug up:

  • $4.004 trillion -- federal government spending in 2009, a record.
  • $1.845 trillion -- federal spending beyond its means in 2009, the deficit.
  • $33,932 -- federal spending per household in 2009.
  • $25,969 -- federal spending per household in 2008.
  • $12,072 -- tax increases required per household to pay for runaway spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security by 2050. (Alternatively, we could reform the programs.)
  • 46 cents -- amount of every dollar Washington spends in 2009 that will be borrowed.
  • 32 percent -- increase in federal spending 2008-2009
  • 13 percent -- amount of the 2009 budget deficit relative to America's economic output. This is double the previous record
President Obama has repeatedly excused the government's spending spree as a necessary, but temporary, consequence of an inherited problem. The trouble is, as Riedl notes, that this spending is far from temporary: the President's 2010 budget would "replace this temporary spending with new permanent programs."

The President's budget proposal would create annual deficits of just under $1 trillion over the next 10 years, which is double the pre-recession deficit. And this lofty figure doesn't even include the President's costly public health care plan, which Riedl says "just digs the nation's financial hole deeper..."