If you're interested in learning how to quickly (less than 5 minutes!) get to the bottom of government facts and figures, follow along with me. Learning how to do this is invaluable, especially when combating wild slurs from the left.
Unhinged Liberal:Of course, he's wrong. You can go here and run the numbers yourself. It is not a government site, but it uses publicly available government statistics from GPO Access.
"The biggest lie, which has put the Federal and State governments in the RED, is the lie that cutting taxes will spur growth and bring in more money to pay the bills.
We have had 30 years of experience with this promise, and the facts prove that theory to be false."
The data plainly show that revenue increased after each tax cut, and GDP also kept climbing. So clearly, the culprit in all of this is the spending.
Unfortunately, government spending grew at an even greater rate than the revenue increase, resulting in the growth of the national debt.
Look at the chart during the Reagan 80's, and you'll see why liberals (and libertarians,and fiscal conservatives) criticize Reagan and the Democratic House. They increased spending even more than revenue increased, adding to the public debt. Clinton and a Republican congress eventually flatlined it around 1997, and even started it downward. Bush II ramped it up even more, and Obama is on course to set new spending records.
A False Nexus
This is where the mischief comes in. Liberals scream and point to the debt chart, ignoring the first chart showing the increase in revenue. To them, this "proves" that tax cuts cause debt. They have to leave out the fact that revenue increased and the economy grew in order to "prove" this. That tax cuts caused the debt is patently and provably false. Too much spending is what exploded the debt.
An Easy to Use Tool to Analyze Government Data
I highly recommend Christopher Chantrill's Government Spending site. Look on the left sidebar and you will find links to the sister sites, US Government Debt, and US Government Revenue.
You can use the interactive charts to zoom in on areas of interest. All of his charts are powered by US Government data accessed at GPOAccess.Gov. You can also download all the data yourself for your own analysis from that same site.
Chantrill's site makes this very easy to do. If you click the little "Here" link below the charts, you can build your own interactive line chart that displays the data from year to year. % of GDP is a good choice to display for government spending, since it shows you how big of a slice the federal government takes out of the economy. I also like the "$ billion 2005" setting, which displays all data in constant 2005 numbers. This is important since the dollar's value is constantly eroding and it allows us to compare the 1930's with the 1980's by basing all numbers in constant dollars.
Avoid Petty Partisan Spats and Focus on the Stats
I bring all of this to you because I am tired of arguing with people who just want to tear down republicans or score some cheap political point. Engaging in these kinds of arguments is a descent into madness. Stick to the facts, and you can at least make some headway towards understanding, if not for the lib you are arguing with, then at least for yourself.
