Phoney Baloney in Welfare Spending

With sharp eye and hard head, a noted analyst looks at federal accounts, concluding that there’s a great deal more there than meets the eye

Those of us who have been troubled by the explosive growth of governmental activities in recent years and by the threat they pose to the freedom and responsibility of the individual can relax. We have all been mistaken and government isn’t really growing when we view it in meaningful terms. I have that on the highest authority in the land. The President himself said so in a speech to the CED (Committee for Economic Development): “Total federal spending in 1965 will be the lowest in fourteen years in terms of our gross national product. Non-defense spending will be lower than it was thirty years ago in terms of our gross national product (GNP). There are fewer federal employees now than there were a year ago when I took office.” Mr. Johnson also offered a cheerful outlook in his January 1965 Budget Message: “. . . we have good reason to expect that government expenditures in the years ahead will grow more slowly than the gross national product, so that the ratio of federal spending to our total output will continue to decline.”

RF

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Roger A. Freeman

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With sharp eye and hard head, a noted analyst looks at federal accounts, concluding that there’s a great deal more there than meets the eye

Those of us who have been troubled by the explosive growth of governmental activities in recent years and by the threat they pose to the freedom and responsibility of the individual can relax. We have all been mistaken and government isn’t really growing when we view it in meaningful terms. I have that on the highest authority in the land. The President himself said so in a speech to the CED (Committee for Economic Development): “Total federal spending in 1965 will be the lowest in fourteen years in terms of our gross national product. Non-defense spending will be lower than it was thirty years ago in terms of our gross national product (GNP). There are fewer federal employees now than there were a year ago when I took office.” Mr. Johnson also offered a cheerful outlook in his January 1965 Budget Message: “. . . we have good reason to expect that government expenditures in the years ahead will grow more slowly than the gross national product, so that the ratio of federal spending to our total output will continue to decline.”