Federal Spending Doubles in Less Than a Decade

Remember the good old days, when the federal government was, shall we say, smaller? And by “smaller,” I mean half the size it is today.

Well you should, because that was only nine years ago.

Economist Chris Edwards ran the numbers, and found that since 2000, the federal government’s budget has doubled, from $1.79 trillion to an estimated $3.65 trillion today. Much of that can be contributed to former president Bush’s giant spending programs and the increase in defense spending to pay for the wars, but the largest upswing occurred just in the past year.

In 2009, the federal budget exploded from $2.98 trillion to an estimated $3.65 trillion, which would be the largest one-year leap in nearly 60 years when adjusted for inflation.

DownsizingGovernment.com has all the details, including a breakdown of federal spending by each federal department. It might even make you pine for those “old days.”