October 8, 2010 2:50PM 

# Do We Have a Problem of Too Much Spending or Too Little Revenue? 

By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) 

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Here’s a chart from Veronique de Rugy’s [new article on federal revenues vs. spending in *The American*](http://american.com/archive/2010/october/taxes-and-presidential-math). Amazing how the problem becomes obvious when you look at real numbers and don’t get trapped into using “baseline” math (as [I explain](http://danieljmitchell.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/heres-how-to-balance-the-budget/) in my [latest video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xezWd7VU2Ug)).

![Media Name: Spending-v-Tax-Cuts.jpg](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/Spending-v-Tax-Cuts.jpg?itok=nO3CODvW) 

By the way, find out when John Stossel’s program on Fox Business News airs in your area. Veronique is a guest this week talking about these issues.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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