And who calculates “GDP”?
The size of the government has to equal taxation + debt. Period.
You can calculate it yourself if you want. The formula is private consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports − imports).
The size of the government has to equal taxation + debt. Period.
The size of government should be measured by how much it taxes and how much it spends as a share of the nation's economy. In FY 2012 federal revenue was 15.82% of GDP and spending was 24.33% of GDP. Ryan's plan would bring the current spending of 24% of GDP down to 18-19% of GDP after 2015. Tax revenue has always stayed in the range of 15-20% of GDP over the past 70 years so the deficit would be significantly reduced.