When Is a Cut Not a Cut?

When it is considered responsible fiscal government. The budget deal just passed, will not actually reduce government spending by a single dime.

It will merely allow slower growth in government spending than our rulers desire. It begs Peter Klein to consider the nature of a Krugmanian slasher-flick.

It turns out that the last time that federal government spending decreased from one year to the next occurred during the final year of the Truman administration. From 1953 to 1954 spending fell from $76.1 billion to $70.9 billion.