What is the generally accepted best measure of total government spending (federal, state & local combined) as a % of our GDP?
The Heritage Foundation report that for the United States it is 41.7%.
http://www.heritage.org/...
This surprises me. I always assumed that you calculate this number by
*retrieving the GDP data file from the BEA report
*finding the line entitled "Government consumption expenditures and gross investment" *dividing it by the top line - the one simply called "Gross domestic product".
But that produces a value half of the one reported by Heritage.
Is a there generally agreed upon correct way of determining this number?