[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

If you listened to Republican legislators, even those who know better like Assembly Budget Committee Vice Chair Roger Niello, or columnists like Dan Weintraub of the Bee, their tired budget mantra is that the current budget problem has to do with too much spending. They typically point to spending increases in recent years as evidence.
 
But like so much of California's budget, it’s a little more complicated than the simplistic glance that the right wing and quickie posts like to spend at addressing the real problems facing California.
 
Some have taken a quick look at General Fund spending totals over the past for years and come to the shortsighted conclusion that Government has grown by over $25 billion, or over 35 percent. But this does not come close to being an accurate measurement of spending growth or the growth of Government.
 
A more accurate description of spending levels the last for years is the analogy of a balloon that was squeezed at one end which forces an expansion at the other end. In the end, actual state spending has grown less than the growth of population and inflation over the past four years.
 
Here are some details: