60% Recognize That Government Spending Has Increased Every Year Since 1954
In 1954, the average new house cost just over $10,000, a new car was under $2,000, gasoline was under 30 cents a gallon, and you could buy a magazine for 20 cents.
That was also the last year that overall government spending in America declined from one year to the next. The numbers are documented in the Historical Tables of the U.S. Budget, but a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 60% of Americans believe it to be true. Seventeen percent (17%) say it's false and probably assumed there must have been some year in between when government spending slipped. After all, we’re talking about years that included the tax revolt, the Reagan Revolution, the Perot movement and Bill Clinton’s declaration that the “Era of Big Government” was over.
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