[jb6]

I read that according to Ann Rand, if total government spending was over 22% of the GDP (at all levels) it adversely affected the economic growth. It crowded out private borrowers and cut into company growth.

[cdrw]

yep - virtually every graduate student of macroeconomics learns the crowding out theory (maybe the undergrads too) and it is absolutely true. Every dollar the government takes is money that would have been available to fund private business if they had not taken it. Their take drives up the cost of money to businesses and squeezes out the ones at the margin.