Spending Plot
A couple things I notice about the spending plot. First is that the major increase in social spending (as a % of GDP) happened between 1965 and 1975. I guess this was Johnson's "Great Society." It also coincides with the period of divergence in health care costs between the US and the rest of the industrialized world (something I don't really understand the causes of). The other thing is that, while social spending rose precipitously with the onset of the Recession, prior to that it was relatively flat for about 20 years. This gives me some small hope that projections of continued significant increases in social spending are not as accurate as I'd previously believed.
But really, the story of the spending plot is the inverse relation between defense and social spending. For the past 60 years we've consistently chosen to fund increased social spending through cuts in defense spending. I don't think that is necessarily bad, but at a minimum it brings up the issue of what to do when we can't decrease military spending any more.
Revenue Plot
The revenue plot shows that federal revenues have been remarkably flat (as a % of GDP) over time. They've hovered around 18% of GDP for the past 60 years. The interesting trends I see in this plot are the decrease in receipts of corporate income taxes and the rise in taxes due to social insurance (increases in FICA and so forth). Total federal revenue is at a 6-decade low, due largely to the fall in income tax receipts. This is a result both of the two recessions in the 2000s and the Bush tax cuts (particularly those for the middle class).
