Great column on Bloomberg View by Harvard Economics Professor Edward Glaeser, who says the big government vs. small government debate in Washington is a red herring. As Prof. Glaeser says, the goal should be for a smart government. He even takes a quick jab against the Right:
"Republicans, who often pledge to reduce federal spending, don’t have a great track record shrinking the share of government to GDP. Federal outlays as a share of GDP rose under three of the last four Republican presidents, and it’s easy to understand why. Cutting taxes, which Republican administrations did regularly, is fun and popular, but doing so without lowering spending is just passing the buck to our children."
and later on against the Left:
"Cutting even 15 percent of [Government's GDP share] will be tough, given that advocates of liberal spending will argue that our government is already quite small relative to the size of the public sector in other developed countries, and cutting 15 percent would mean reducing government’s share of the economy by 1 percentage point."
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