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The federal budget is fast approaching, and with it another round of debate about federal spending. Is there too much of it, too little, or just the right amount? To help you out, I’ve brought a couple of handy charts.

Here is what federal program spending looks like over the last six decades:

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On the other hand this, too, is what federal program spending looks like over the last six decades:

Huh? Two charts, both professing to show the same thing, yet with vastly different results. Both draw upon the same figures from the public accounts. Yet one shows spending declining or constant over many years, while the other shows it more or less steadily rising. One suggests we’re spending a third less than we did in the 1970s; the other has us spending nearly twice as much. How can this be?

The difference lies in what spending is compared to in each case: the benchmark. The first measures spending in proportion to GDP. The second expresses it in constant (2016) dollars per capita, that is adjusted for increases in prices and population. That may seem an arcane distinction, but as you can see it makes all the difference. In the first chart, spending seems well under control, even overly so. In the second it looks, if not quite out of control, then certainly running at full throttle. Cue the political arguments.