The graph tells a simple story that I've recounted before. For all the talk you hear about Obama's historic spree, government spending actually hasn't increased so dramatically under this president. The stimulus was big, but it's over. It's been replaced by, if not austerity (which has struck our states and cities) then a hard correction to the center.
But no, we prob'ly can't put it away at all. Digging into the comments on Thompson's post shows an awful lot of people just totally unwilling to accept anything but their own version of the story. And that's where we are now. We've arrived at a place where people of great power have convinced way too many of us that Perception Is Reality. If they're pushing an agenda that isn't supported by honest research and real-world data, then they just go shopping - somebody out there is willing to reach whatever foregone conclusion they have in mind. You can see it in practically any business almost every day - the boss decides to take the company in a certain direction, and the good folks in Marketing (the smart ones anyway) will come up with "customer survey info" that confirms everything he wants to do. Facts are now fungible.
And we are so fucked.
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