For anyone who doesn't believe entitlements + interest on the debt will crowd out all other spending

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24. This contradicts the post you put up yesterday that shows interest isn't a major factor.

This from Nate Silver's 538 Blog you cribbed from yesterday: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/what-is-driving-growth-in-government-spending/

Another surprise is how little we are paying in interest on the federal debt, even though the debt is growing larger and larger. Right now, interest payments make up only about 6 percent of the federal budget. In addition, they have been decreasing as a share of the gross domestic product: the federal government spent about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product in paying interest on its debt on 2011, down from a peak of 3.3 percent in 1991.

How is this possible? The reason is that although the government is borrowing a lot of money, it is doing so very cheaply because interest rates are low both over all and on government debt specifically. We’re now spending less than 2 percent of the principal annually to service our debt, down from a peak of close to 7 percent in the early 1980s. Borrowing costs aren’t expected to remain this low forever, so this ratio is bound to increase some. Fortunately, much of the debt we have issued has relatively long maturities, meaning that we have locked in low rates. (This won’t necessarily apply to future deficit spending: one of the consequences of failing to raise the debt ceiling would be a significant rise in borrowing costs, which would compound our debt problems later on.)

Which is it, a major threat to the economy or a small and declining burden as a percent of GNP? I DON'T THINK YOU KNOW.

The only thing you don't seem to be alarmed by is the growth in defense spending (more than 80 percent), which has grown twice as fast over the last decade as major social programs. WHAT'S YOUR FRACKING AGENDA?