October 18, 2011 11:50AM 

# The Biggest Budget in History 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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The *Wall Street Journal* [notes](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204479504576637513885592874.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop) today that the federal government spent more money in the just-concluded 2011 fiscal year than in any year in history, and no one noticed. What happened to all that austerity and all those spending cuts that we heard about all year? Well, some of us [warned](https://www.cato.org/extreme-budget-cuts/) [over](https://www.cato.org/largest-spending-cut-ever/) the past year that they were all [smoke](http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2011/04/biggest-cut-history-long-shot/) and [mirrors](https://www.cato.org/two-pinocchios-for-biggest-cuts-ever/).

Now that the year’s over, you can see in this chart from the *Journal* that the federal government spent more and borrowed more in 2011 than in any previous year*—$900 billion more* than just four years ago, and $150 billion more than last year:

![Media Name: Spending-2011.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/Spending-2011.jpg?itok=0FTq24OS) 

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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