Something to Celebrate

With a hint of concern, perhaps disappointment even, the cable network staff economist reports that government spending has declined four straight quarters... He laments;

"now four straight quarters of decline in government spending in the GDP accounts, that hasn't happened since the wind down of government spending in the wake of the Vietnam War in 1971. So it's been a long time since government has been this sort of a drag on the economy."

"It's been a long time since (a decline in) government (spending) has been this sort of a drag on the economy" - let that sink in... As if government spending, as if $15 trillion in national debt, as if a $1.5 trillion budget deficit and its attendant uncertainty hasn't indeed been THE drag on the economy these days...

Notwithstanding the impact to GDP, I'm thinking four quarters of decline in gov't spending is something to celebrate...

Never [ever!] forget, the government doesn't have its own money... It has tax revenue that it extracts from the private sector... Every dollar the government doesn't spend is ultimately one the private sector allocates... You think maybe that dollar has a way better chance of growing (jobs, etc.) in the private sector than it would in the clutches of the politician?