Many Americans use the analogy of a pie to think about the government budget. But, Sarah Leiser, lecturer of public policy and leader of the Michigan Local Government Fiscal Health Project at CLOSUP, says there's another way to think about it.
"It is not a zero-sum thing. So you can think about cutting up the pie and giving a piece to everybody. Or you can think about leaving some to make more pie, I guess," Leiser said. "When you look at things like the federal debt part of that went to investments that will pay off over time and part of it goes to our credit card of current spending."