Reforms to Establish a Pro-Growth Budget

The federal government currently spends an unaffordable amount of money. Based on the re-search developed in Part 5 of the Pacific Research Institute's Beyond the New Normal series, the affordable size of government is defined as the level of spending that maximizes the economy's growth rate – or when the federal government is spending between 14 percent and 16 percent of national income. As of 2018, federal spending was 23.8 percent of national income, or sig-nificantly above the affordability threshold. Even more troubling, if the current trends are not altered, then total federal government spending will grow to 32.8 percent of national income by 2044. The consequence from our unaffordable government is diminished current, and future, economic prosperity.