Modern legislative debates are often defined by the total “price tag”— the $550 billion infrastructure bill, $1.9 trillion Trump tax cut, or $938 billion Affordable Care Act. And the major “lame duck” session bill that worked its way through Congress before the holidays — a $1.7 trillion omnibus — was no different.
The sheer size of this bill meant the stakes were incredibly high for Americans’ wallets — but the amount of new government spending alone doesn’t tell us the full...