[seanmcdirmid]

The USA is hardly a very centralized system; a lot of taxation happens at the state and local levels, while spending as a share of GDP isn't crazy compared to other developed countries (who mostly consider us very conservative). From some cruddy numbers I found via a quick Google; if someone has better numbers, please share, Federal government spends 25% of our GDP, state/local another 15%, we spend 60%. Of course, we spend money we haven't earned (lent from other countries), so say the federal government taxes at about 15% of the economy (states/locals don't go into debt as much, so they are probably roughly event at 15%). T

Sources:

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.ht... http://www.politifact.com/virginia/statements/2011/apr/22/ma...