In an interview with Deborah Solomon in the New York Times Magazine, Grover Norquist claims falsely that “[t]he [Iraq] war spending is a fraction of the spend-too-much problem”:
SOLOMON: Now that we’re facing an economic slowdown, not to mention a $9 trillion national debt, is it fair to ask whether the Bush tax cuts have damaged the country?
NORQUIST: Oh, no, no, the spending has done the damage.
SOLOMON: The spending in Iraq?
NORQUIST: That’s what the White House says. But it’s not true. The war spending is a fraction of the spend-too-much problem. When you want an extra dollar for the war, you have to give Congress $2 for other stuff.
But as the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows in the following tables, this claim is false — the share of the federal budget devoted to domestic discretionary spending and its size relative to GDP per person have declined while defense spending has soared:
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Table 1: |
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|
Share of Total |
2001 |
2008 |
Change |
| Defense & security |
21.7% |
29.2% |
+7.5% |
| Social Security, Medicare/caid |
45.9% |
43.5% |
-2.4% |
| Other mandatory programs |
14.0% |
12.5% |
-1.4% |
| Domestic discretionary |
18.4% |
14.7% |
-3.7% |
| Total program costs |
100% |
100% |
0.0% |
| Notes: Figures may not add due to rounding. The defense/security figures also include veterans, homeland security, and international affairs. Medicare is net of premiums. Figures for 2008 are CBO’s January estimate plus supplemental discretionary funding requested by President Bush. Totals exclude net interest. | |||
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Table 2: |
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|
|
nominal |
real |
real per person |
| Defense & security |
12.0% |
9.1% |
8.1% |
| Social Security, Medicare/caid |
6.5% |
3.8% |
2.8% |
| Other mandatory programs |
5.7% |
3.0% |
2.0% |
| Domestic discretionary |
4.0% |
1.3% |
0.3% |
| Average, all program costs |
7.3% |
4.6% |
3.6% |
| See Notes, Table 1. | |||