Here's Proof That Congress Has Been Dragging Down The Economy For Years

In honor of the new fiscal year, the Brookings Institution released the Fiscal Impact Measure, an interactive chart by senior fellow Louise Sheiner that shows how the balance of government spending and tax revenues have affected U.S. GDP growth.

The takeaway? Fiscal policies have been a drag on economic growth since 2011.

According to Brookings, the chart is similar to the ones produced internally by staff economists at the Fed for their policymakers, only this one is available to the public. That makes sense - Janet Yellen made a big speech way back in February 2013 about how much of a drag fiscal policy has been on the recovery, and has also mentioned it since becoming Fed chair.

There's a whole Brookings interactive on the project website, which also includes charts on jobs, state and local tax receipts, and longer run projected federal revenues and spending.