The government is getting smaller...

...in the United States, according to a piece in the Times today by Floyd Norris (my emphasis): 

For the first time in 40 years, the government sector of the American economy has shrunk during the first three years of a presidential administration. 

Spending by the federal government, adjusted for inflation, has risen at a slow rate under President Obama. But that increase has been more than offset by a fall in spending by state and local governments, which have been squeezed by weak tax receipts.