"there is the controversy over the cause of the federal budget deficit. In the eighties, when the budget deficit ballooned to over $200 billion, a prolonged debate ensued over whether the rise in the deficit was caused by spending growth or tax cuts. One way to cut through the haze of numbers and get at the simple truth is to look at total federal receipts and outlays as shares of GDP. Federal tax receipts as a share of GDP did dip from a high of 21 percent in 1981 to 19 percent in the mideighties, but they have since climbed back to about 20 percent. With current tax receipts now high as a share of GDP, it is clear that major tax "cuts" have not occurred and that
higher government spending is largely responsible for the budget deficit."
Lincoln Anderson, "Gross Domestic Product." The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. 1993. Library of Economics and Liberty. 10 December 2010. <http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/GrossDomesticProduct.html>.