Insane Government Spending

Total government (state, local, federal) spending will be about 45% of total GDP this year. This means that government spending represents nearly half of the total U.S. economy. And to think some people still do not think government is doing enough. I created the graph below from data from usgovernmentspending.com.


Notice total government spending as a percentage of GDP never rose above 10% (except briefly during the Civil War) until after 1913. I wonder why that is...
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