Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 September 2012
In March 2009, at a time when President Obama was basking in the glow of thehoneymoon with the public every new president enjoys, I asked, “Will Barack Obama bea one-term president?” What prompted me to pose so impertinent a question at sohopeful a time was that the Office of Management and Budget was projecting that thatyear the federal government would spend 28% of gross domestic product (GDP). Thisamounted to a 7% point increase compared to the previous year, the largest peacetimeone-year jump since 1930. The most recent estimate for 2012 is that federal outlayswill take up 24.3% of GDP, up 3.5% points since 2008. This is the second-largestpeacetime increase from one election year to the next since 1880, edged out only byFranklin D. Roosevelt's first-term surge of 3.6% points.