Out Of Control Federal Spending Or Austerity In US?

Discretionary spending includes all of the spending by the federal government that is not mandated by current law.  In includes spending on defense and other federal programs.  Paul Krugman provides us with a graph of discretionary spending under Bush and Obama that is revealing.  It trended upwards under Bush and it has been flat under Obama.  Krugman argues that unemployment would have been reduced to 5.5% if discretionary spending under Obama had remained on the trend that existed during the Bush administration.  The GOP rediscovered fiscal responsibility when it lost the presidency.