&gt; Why compare that actual cost to GDP?  Compare it to federal tax revenue.<p>Because we are talking about determinants of the health of the economy, not determinants of the health of government finance.<p>&gt; There is not a lot of room for the federal government to increase revenue as total taxes (incl state and local, sales, payroll, property, etc) are not low by any means in the US<p>That&#x27;s not particularly true; the US is pretty close to the bottom of total tax revenue to GDP ratio among OECD countries; there is plenty of room to increase tax revenue.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oecd.org&#x2F;ctp&#x2F;tax-policy&#x2F;revenue-statistics-ratio-change-latest-years.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.oecd.org&#x2F;ctp&#x2F;tax-policy&#x2F;revenue-statistics-ratio-...</a>