Government Spending Has Not Acted as Stimulus to Economy

This graph shows total government spending over a 10 year period. It is apparent that there has not been a government stimulus to the economy during our recession and weak recovery. State and local spending declined because of falling tax receipts and federal spending did not compensate for the fall in state and local spending. This debunks two arguments that dominate in the media that government spending is out of control and that the stimulus did not work.