Good article on government spending

[donheff]

Nate Silver has a good article on components of government spending, both state and local. This appears to me to be a solidly factual, non-partisan piece that many of our number crunchers and chartists will find interesting. Lots of charts, like the following:

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Well, your chart does seem to show that entitlement programs are the fastest growing component, which would make sense based on an aging population. Likewise, defense spending seems to have shrunk at or around the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. I won't make any further comment at this point, as it would likely cause this thread to go to the Politics board.

 

[samclem]

donheff,
Thanks. Yes, Silver's article pretty much sums up the problem.