Is the federal government getting any smaller? Not really.
As the Post's David Fahrenthold notes in a terrific piece today, even though Congress and the White House have been through six budget showdowns over two and a half years, little has changed.
The government is on track to spend $3.455 trillion in 2013, which is down ever so slightly from the $3.457 trillion it spent in 2010. The federal government employs 4.1 million people, a population that would make it larger than 24 states.