Fun With Numbers: Looking for that Run Away Government Spending

I know it's rude to bring numbers to DC policy debates, but some of us uncouth types just can't control themselves. Just for fun, I thought I would see what government spending measured as a share of GDP would like if the economy had grown as had been projected before the 2008 collapse.

This is similar to taking the deficits as a share of potential GDP, but not exactly the same. Potential GDP is based on the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) estimate of the economy's potential level of outp...