Four Decades Of Taxes And Spending, In 2 Graphs  In 1974,
federal taxes were equal to about a sixth of the U.S. economy.
In 2013, after decades of heated debate, federal taxes were
equal to ... about a sixth of the economy.   In the early '70s,
federal spending was about a fifth of the economy. The same was
true in 2013.   Those figures bounced up and down as the economy
went through boom and bust cycles. During the long boom of the
'90s, when the economy was growing quickly and unemployment was
very low, the government was collecting more taxes than usual
and spending less, relative to the overall economy. During the
great recession, the reverse was true on both counts, as jobs
disappeared and more people qualified for safety net programs.
The composition of spending and taxes has shifted a bit over the
decades. Spending on Medicaid and Medicare has grown, relative
to the overall economy, while military spending has fallen in
relative terms. Payroll taxes (which fund Medicare, as well as
Social Security) ha