Here's Why Democrats' $3.5 Trillion Legislation Isn't (Quite) As Big As It Sounds

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

65% : Green energy would get a boost, but not enough to hit climate goals.
60% : It would also reduce what the federal government spends to subsidize private insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
56% : One is to look back a little farther in history to the reforms of the Great Society and New Deal.
55% : On the other hand, this was mostly before Social Security started paying out checks.
54% : Putting aside one-time or emergency spending measures, like the pandemic relief measures of the past year and a half, that $3.5 trillion increase in federal spending would represent the largest single increase in ongoing government spending in decades.
52% : the New Deal tripled the size of government," Kogan said, adding that it was "vastly greater in every way than what's going on with the Democratic plan."
51% : Comparisons between the U.S. and other countries are always difficult, in part because a proper tally of U.S. government spending has to include state and local outlays.
50% : He mentioned in particular temporary, one-time funding for wars and emergencies -- including the pandemic -- that have sent government spending soaring.
48% : Although the bulk of the legislation's proposals envision spending new money on human services like home care aides for the elderly and people with disabilities, the agenda also includes some proposed initiatives that are supposed to reduce government spending -- in other words, proposals that would make government smaller, not bigger.
47% : The posture of these conservative Democrats is not surprising, given their relative ambivalence toward government programs and federal spending.
46% : The Biden agenda looks even smaller when you compare it to the New Deal.
42% : That would mean less government spending through Medicare, which pays for older Americans' drugs.
22% : "To call [the Biden-Democratic] package 'historically large' is fundamentally wrong unless one ignores the New Deal, wars and tax cuts," Kogan said.
21% : To call [the Biden-Democratic] package 'historically large' is fundamentally wrong unless one ignores the New Deal, wars and tax cuts.

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