Despite aggressive cost-cutting by the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, federal spending has reportedly climbed by $154 billion since Donald Trump returned to office.

Government spending is significantly higher under Trump’s second term compared to the same period in 2024 under Joe Biden, according to the analysis by the Wall Street Journal, citing the Treasury Department’s daily financial statements.

The increase—$154 billion—comes even as DOGE, led by Elon Musk, touts $150 billion in cost savings through job cuts, contract terminations, and the rollback of diversity and aid programs.

  • @turnip@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    When did it decrease under the Democrats?

    Clinton perhaps, after the USSR folded, I can’t recall any other times spending fell.

    I am curious given the money supply grows at 10% a year whether spending can fall relative to the past 4 years. It seems mathematically impossible given just the inflation in salaries and goods prices.

      • @turnip@sh.itjust.works
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        21 day ago

        Thats a good chart, so during recessions and emergencies the spending increases dramatically, then goes back to a normal path progressively upwards.

        • @shottymcb@lemm.ee
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          61 day ago

          Yes, and for some reason those recessions and emergencies happen when morons are in charge. Who would’ve guessed?

            • @shottymcb@lemm.ee
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              5 hours ago

              Just gonna steal this from someone else, but

              Longer than that, I bet. This report from EPIAction doesn’t specifically mention spending increases and decreases, but all other economic indicators have been better under Democrats than they have under Republicans for at least 75 years.

              Since 1949, there has been a Democratic advantage in the average performance of key macroeconomic indicators measuring economic health, including:

              Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth

              Job growth

              Unemployment rate

              Growth in inflation-adjusted wages

              Growth of market-based incomes per capita

              Inflation

              Interest rates

              The US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regardless of how one measures performance…The superiority of economic performance under Democrats rather than Republicans is nearly ubiquitous: it holds almost regardless of how you define success. By many measures, the performance gap is startlingly large.

              • @turnip@sh.itjust.works
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                21 hours ago

                That was a large cause of the GFC. I’m just saying its not as if democrats are much better, most aren’t Bernie Sanders.