you link to the cbo, but not to a cbo report. please link to the report that you pulled the quote from.5. From the end of WWII until 2008, federal spending as a percent of GDP hovered around an average of 20%. (Even with the Reagan defense buildup, which, remember, won the Cold War without firing a shot, total Federal spending as a percent of GDP declined from a high of 23.5% of GDP in 1983 to 21.3% in 1988 and 21.2% in 1989. That's a real reduction in the size of government relative to the economy of 10%.
http://www.americansolutions.com/economy/2009/06/when-the-republicans-cut-spending.php)
Under Obama, it soared by another 25% in just two years, up to 25% of GDP.
a. Federal, state and local welfare spending is now projected to total $10.3 trillion over the next ten years. Welfare was originally the province of the states, but the federal government now has some 185 means-tested welfare programs. And Obamacare spending doesn’t even start until 2014!
b. Under current policies, federal spending will be over 40% of GDP by 2040, and “the growing imbalance between revenues and noninterest spending, combined with spiraling interest payments, would swiftly push debt to unsustainable levels. Debt as a share of GDP would exceed its historical peak of 109 percent by 2025 and would reach 185 percent in 2035.”
Congressional Budget Office Nonpartisan Analysis for the U.S. Congress
And, for sure....some idiot would cheer about it!