MICHAEL BARONE: Why Obama’s Tax Hikes Will Never Be Enough. “Under Obama, federal outlays — the technical term for federal spending — have increased to between 24 and 25 percent of gross domestic product. That’s a higher level of federal spending than in any year since 1946, when we were demobilizing after World War II. And the Obama budgets envision federal spending to continue at such levels more or less indefinitely.”