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- Total government expenditures are nearly the size of China's GDP

If I am not mistaken, the federal spending budget includes military spending as well.

You forgot to include state and local government expenditures, which perhaps almost double the number.

And maybe he was thinking of a China GDP number from a year or two ago. When I google "China GDP" it gives me $7.3 billion from 2011.

And "nearly" is subjective.

And most military spending is welfare, either to defense contractors or otherwise.