Is spending out of control in Washington? The answer depends on how you define your terms. There’s enough data to spin this any way you want. But let’s try to be objective. In truth, there’s no single, fully objective way to quantify the spending habits of the beast in Washington. We can, however, make a valiant effort by considering federal outlays from several perspectives. What we’ll find is a spending trend of late that’s in decline. It’s anyone’s guess if this will endure. As always, the answer relies on political decisions, which are constrained at the moment due to the automatic budget cuts that are currently the law of the land. For now, let’s consider what the current numbers tell us about the trend in budgetary matters.