About that USA Today article that claimed taxes are 9%

Punch back:

In other words, in addition to collecting about a quarter of GDP in taxes, governments in the US at all levels tacked on another 10.7% of GDP in future costs. Add that up and governments in the US spent over a third of national income in 2009. A far cry from the 9.2% that the USA Today article inadvertently implies. 

I have no doubt the BEA figures are accurate and that the article’s author, Dennis Cauchon, reported them faithfully. But by not giving context and not adequately defining terms, readers can walk away with a belief that American government costs about a quarter of what it really does.