Federal spending as a share of GDP will average 24.1% over his first term including 2013.
The U.S. reduced spending as a share of GDP by 5% from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s.
As a share of GDP, South Korea's military spending is bigger than China's, Japan's and Brazil's.
Interestingly, the burden of government spending actually fell as a share of GDP between 1983 and 2000.
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Yet consumption is still falling as a share of GDP because investment has been growing even faster.
As a share of GDP, American business profits fell from 12.2% in 1965 to 6.4% in 1982.
Although public debt rose, it remained low as a share of GDP compared to the rest of Europe.
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Any comprehensive deficit reduction must take on the imbalance between revenues and expenditures as a share of GDP.
Furthermore, Governor Romney proposes revenue-neutral reform while the Simpson-Bowles Commission would raise taxes as a share of GDP.
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Measured as a share of GDP, investment in equipment and software is almost back to its prerecession level.
By this alternative measure, consumption fell as a share of GDP until 2008, but started growing strongly thereafter.
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However, borrowing by individuals remains relatively low as a share of GDP, mainly because so few people have mortgages.
Chinese officials say they plan to boost domestic consumption as a share of GDP, and Woo is a believer.
But Britain's bank exposure is still huge, and a shade larger as a share of GDP, at 14.7%, than Germany's.
It found that a 1% rise in government consumption as a share of GDP eventually reduced private-sector consumption by 1.9%.
Investment as a share of GDP is well below the norm among G7 economies, one reason for those trade surpluses.
Although America guzzles more oil, it is also a producer, so net oil imports are smaller as a share of GDP.
Expenditures on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, measured as a share of GDP, grew 20 percent over the past four years.
But debt as a share of GDP was still only 40.5% of GDP as recently as the first recession year of 2008.
Last year Britain's deficit as a share of GDP was among the highest in the 15 old members of the European Union.
His plan would basically flat-line healthcare spending as a share of GDP.
As a share of GDP, this measure is the second-highest in both the euro area and the wider 27-strong EU (see chart).
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The problem is that China's narrower surplus reflects an unsustainable rise in investment (as a share of GDP) rather than in consumption.
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In the years since, it has fallen as a share of GDP.
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The nearby chart shows U.S. federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP since the beginning of World War II.
Federal taxes have crept up as a share of GDP, from 18% to 21% during the past eight years--the highest level since WWII.
Annual spending on infrastructure as a share of GDP dropped from more than 3% in the early 1960s to roughly 1% in 2007.
In addition, tax revenues as a share of GDP continue to languish below 16%, compared to their longer term average of somewhat above 18%.
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But this is not enough, he argues, to reverse the dramatic decline in private consumption as a share of GDP over the past decade.
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Debt as a share of GDP would exceed its historical peak of 109 percent by 2026, and it would approach 200 percent in 2037.
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