Spending Problems? Not so much.

This, from an article about the State of the Union address, can’t be said enough:

1. We don’t have a spending problem. Republicans love to claim that government spending is out of control and is holding back the economy. But under President Obama, government spending has grown at its slowest pace since the Eisenhower administration. According to the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office, the nation’s deficits have shrunk by trillions of dollars, and the debt is close to being stabilized as a percentage of the economy. In fact, spending cuts are holding back the economic recovery — what’s needed isn’t more austerity but a plan to create jobs. In fact, the deficit reduction achieved since 2011 has still overwhelmingly favored spending cuts to tax increases, meaning that any budget deal going forward should include new revenue in order to be truly balanced.

This has been true for years. We don’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem and cutting funding for government services (unemployment, infrastructure, salaries, etc.) is harming our economy, not helping.