Misleading GDP Numbers

Catherine Salgado makes the case in her article, "The Economy Isn’t Growing. The Government Is Just Adding Debt," that the only reason the economy is "growing" (as measured by GDP) is because of government spending. She notes:

Did the fourth quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 2023 report actually show wonderful economic growth? Not when put in context. You see, all that “growth” is really government spending (taxpayer) money it doesn’t have. Every $1 of GDP growth cost taxpayers $1.69 in new debt. To observe that sort of “growth” isn’t sustainable is a massive understatement.

The article explains that GDP is not really a measure of economic growth but of spending, whether by companies, individuals, or, relevant here, the government.  

“‘In the past 12 months the federal deficit increased by $1.3 trillion. Yet we only got half that in GDP — about $600 billion. In other words, everything else shrank. It’s even worse for that brave and stunning Q4 — there we got just $300 billion in extra GDP for — wait for it — $834 billion of new federal debt,’” Tucker quoted. Indeed, the Q4 increase in public U.S. debt was $834 billion, or an estimated 154% more than the GDP increase. Future American taxpayers will have to pay $957,100.48 for every new job we created!