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Old 04-02-2020, 10:41 PM   #540 (permalink)
JSH
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Quote:
Originally Posted by serialk11r View Post
Well it's not quite the same, each state has its own budget but (for better or worse) the federal government is very powerful and collects and distributes the majority of taxes, so it smooths over some of the economic differences.
Last year Federal spending was 20% of GDP while State and Local was 17%. As a whole government spending in the USA is a much smaller percentage of GDP than in the EU. (37% vs 46%)

The EU does a lot of smoothing as well:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48256318

(Notice the UK paid less because they had a special rebate.)