Some members of Congress pushed for an end to the recent government shutdown by claiming great strides have already been made in downsizing the federal government.
One of them was Florida Congressman Dennis Rossfrom Lakeland.
In a recent opinion piece in the Tampa Bay Times, Ross wrote that "for the first time since the Korean War, total federal spending has gone down for two years in a row."
The folks at PolitiFact checked that out and ruled it true.
"Ross was trying to make his case to his fellow fiscal conservatives that they've achieved a lot since Republicans took control of Congress in 2010," explained PolitiFact editor Angie Holan. "(He said) the spending has fallen for two straight years. We went to the data and we found that he was right."
Holan said that "what is interesting about this is raw dollars aren't always a good way of judging long periods of history, but here they are going against the tide of population growth and inflation, so it's an interesting number and we rated it true."
As to why federal spending is down two years in a row for the first time since the Korean War, Holan pointed to sequestration.
"Part of the reason is the budget deal of 2011 when they set the sequestration, as they call it," Holan said. "These are across the board cuts in spending and they're taking effect."
