View: Federal receipts and expenditures per GDP

The U.S. is racing up toward the "fiscal cliff", a horrible deal agreed to by both houses of Congress that is so terribly unthinkable that the two sides which agreed to it figured no one would ever let the situation proceed to that outcome. Now both sides are playing "chicken", as the deadline zooms toward us. Those who are advocating austerity of federal spending don’t have a genuine understanding of the severity of cuts that would be needed to balance the budget. And those who think that the problem can be solved through higher tax collections are similarly clueless about just how much money can be reasonably brought in.