[Mudboy Slim]

"...we could easily cut the share of Federal spending relative to GDP to 15% or less - we could and should cut spending, or at least cap it to 0% total growth for a decade..."

Now yer speaking to my heart!! I've said before that we oughtta be closely tracking spending as a percentage of GDP and look to knock it down 1% a year as long as it takes to get us down to 15%, 12%, 8% (as low as we can politically take it). By doing so, we would guarantee record GDP growth for as long as we continued to shrink the Fed's negative impact on the economy, and it would force the Fed to prioritize exactly what we should be spending the taxpayer's money on.

FReegards...MUD

[WOSG]

"Now yer speaking to my heart!! I've said before that we oughtta be closely tracking spending as a percentage of GDP and look to knock it down 1% a year as long as it takes to get us down to 15%, 12%, 8% ..."

Then take a look at this - Bush in his rado address today is proposing the spending limit mechanism whereby this might happen:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1069034/posts?page=12#12

My suggested "Cap" would be this: Total Federal discretionary spending rises only the rate of inflation, until federal spending is less than 15% of GDP.
Total non-discretionary spending is also capped at inflation+population of recipients and they force some mechanisms in place if it grows too fast (eg if health care costs go up to much, cut back on some things).

[hchutch]

I'll take the limit to 1% growth for now... work on the rest of it later.

It's a big enough cut to make some difference, but the Dems can't call it a cut.