Raising total government spending from 37% of GDP to 47% of GDP ...

Here is the left’s secret plan 

to turn America into Sweden

by James Pethokoukis

Just how big do Democrats/left-liberals/progressives want to grow government? And how high are they willing to raise taxes? 

If only there were a left-wing version of Paul Ryan’s famous long-term budget blueprint that would outline a multi-decade path for taxing and spending (including how to deal with the coming entitlement tidal wave).

Instead, pretty much all you can find are 10-year budgets showing taxes a bit higher here, spending a bit high there. After that, however, it gets pretty fuzzy. It’s almost as if the pols and wonks on the left are avoiding the subject of what’s beyond the near horizon.

But there are clues. Democrats continue to dream up new entitlements. To Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, we now have Obamacare. Next up on the wish list is universal pre-K. After that, perhaps a universal basic income. On taxes, some prominent left-wing economists are arguing the US economy would be just fine with sharply higher top tax rates of at least 70%. Put it all together, and it seems like the left is quietly working toward a future America where government spends more, intervenes more, taxes more. A whole lot more.

One honest, straight-forward thinker on the left is University of Arizona sociologist Lane Kenworthy. In his recent book “Social Democratic America” he actually outlines a progressive “path to prosperity” modeled on the generous Nordic welfare states. “Over the course of the next half century, the array of social programs offered by the federal government of the United States will increasingly come to resemble the ones offered by those countries,” Kenworthy wrote in a Foreign Affairs essay earlier this year.

And how much will this cost? Kenworthy offers a rough estimate of 10% of US GDP, or around $1.5 trillion a year, raising total government spending from 37% of GDP to 47% of GDP.

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