“Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some” (Wicker’s Law)

“Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some” was labeled “Wicker’s Law” by New York (NY) Times political writer Tom Wicker, in a book review article “Political Books for a Political Year,” published on June 7, 1964. Harold Faber listed “Wicker’s Law” in a New York Times column on humorous “laws” in 1968; Faber included “Wicker’s Law” in his The Book of Laws (Times Books, 1979).
 
“Wicker’s Law” is frequently misspelled as ‘Wiker’s Law.”
     
   
Wikipedia: Tom Wicker 
Thomas Grey “Tom” Wicker (born June 18, 1926) is an American journalist. He is best-known as a former political reporter and columnist for The New York Times.
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At the Times, he became well-known as a political reporter—one of the lead journalists for the paper’s coverage of the assassination of President Kennedy—and a shrewd observer of the Washington, D.C. scene. In that capacity, his influential “In The Nation” column ran in the Times from 1966 through 1992.
       
You Wouldn’t Believe the Things People Say About Government
Wiker’s Law:
Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some.
     
7 June 1964, New York (NY) Times, “Political Books for a Political Year” by Tom Wicker, pg. BR3:
I am not going to read “It’s Your Money: Waste and Mismanagement in Government Spending” by Ladislas Farago, not because it isn’t a worthy book, so far as I know, but because I have come to know enough about government not to expect to see much done about waste and mismanagement, and not to expect my taxes to go down if anybody should do anything about waste and mismanagement. Wicker’s Law is that government expands to absorb revenue, and then some.
 
17 March 1968, New York (NY) Times, “Faber’s Law: If There Isn’t A Law, There Will Be” By Harold Faber, pg. SM117:
Not to be outdone, Tom Wicker, Mr. Reston’s successor as head of The Times Washington bureau, uncovered a law to which he gave his name: “Government expands to absorb revenue and then some”—a proposition no taxpayer would argue with.
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(Cartoon highlight—ed.)
WICKER’S LAW—“Government expands to absorb revenue—and then some.”
 
Google Books
The Book of Laws
By Harold Faber
New York, NY: Times Books
1979
Pg. 73:
WICKER’S LAW
Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some.
(Tom Wicker, in The New York Times, June 7, 1964.)
   
Google Books
Peter’s people
By Laurence J. Peter
New York, NY: Tower
1979
Pg. 218:
WIKER’S LAW: Government expands to absorb revenue, and then some.