The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Associated Press, via WTOP

The Trump administration may exclude government spending from GDP, obscuring the impact of DOGE cuts

The Associated Press
March 2, 2025, 4:03 PM

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that government spending could be separated from gross domestic product reports in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn.

"You know, that governments historically have messed with GDP," Lutnick said on Fox News Channel's "Sunday Morning Futures." "They count government spending as part of GDP. So I'm going to separate those two and make it transparent."

Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the U.S. economy's health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because changes in taxes, spending, deficits and regulations by the government can impact the path of overall growth. GDP reports already include extensive details on government spending, offering a level of transparency for economists.

Musk's efforts to downsize federal agencies could result in the layoffs of tens of thousands of federal workers, whose lost income could potentially reduce their spending, affecting businesses and the economy at large. ... The commerce secretary's remarks echoed Musk's arguments made Friday on X that government spending doesn't create value for the economy.

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Read more: https://wtop.com/national/2025/03/the-trump-administration-may-exclude-government-spending-from-gdp-obscuring-the-impact-of-doge-cuts/

---

Don't think of them as lies; think of them as alternative facts.

— — — —

The next release is on March 27:

Gross Domestic Product, 4th Quarter and Year 2024 (Third Estimate), GDP by Industry, and Corporate Profits

https://www.bea.gov/news/schedule

[GreenWave]

1. Gee Wally, Who stands to benefit from such obfuscation?

[Solly Mack]

2. ...

[NotHardly]

3. IKEA has an answer to these traitorous thugs. See picture.

[mdbl]

4. Does anyone think they won't be lying about any numbers they release?

I certainly don't.

[Prairie Gates]

5. A little juke here, a little tuck there, a little adjustment, a little nudge

[cstanleytech]

6. Personally, I'm thinking crashing the country is Musk's goal.

It'll give him the perfect opportunity to buy companies , land and property at dirt cheap prices which gives him even more power.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Of course he has to cook the books

[dobleremolque]

8. Wall Street wouldn't stand for that. n/t

[sakabatou]

9. And the corruption keeps growing

[Old Crank]

10. Paul Krugman said a couple of weeks ago

That he had real concerns over this White House cooking the books.

I don't think he expected outright dumping numbers from the GDP. He was more worried about inflation and unemployment numbers.

Looks like his concerns are valid. This will hurt the economy and destroy investors faith in the US government.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

11. Trump officials want to measure the economy's health in a way that may hide DOGE cuts

Yahoo! Finance
Trump officials want to measure the economy's health in a way that may hide DOGE cuts

Ben Werschkul Washington Correspondent
Sun, March 9, 2025 at 10:00 AM EDT
5 min read

A series of comments from Trump officials in recent days raised concerns that the administration may try to look differently at a key economic measure of America's economic health: the quarterly reading of the gross domestic product (GDP).

It's an idea under consideration, but its exact form is unclear. Elon Musk is the idea's most vocal proponent, saying that a "more accurate measure of GDP would exclude government spending."

At issue is that the government already publishes precisely such a figure known as the Value Added by Private Industries (VAPI). But the fact that Musk is pushing it amid his DOGE work — another Trump official has gone further by suggesting that it might be possible to pick and choose government spending — has raised questions about whether this is primarily an attempt to minimize some of the negative effects from Musk's efforts.

"It seems like a strange place to start to say, hey, we're going to have the greatest economy in the history of the globe, but we're going to have to measure it differently because you can't see it," Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, said in a recent episode of Yahoo Finance's Capitol Gains podcast. … "That's not a great sales job," he added.

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