The Bobcat Nation

Here's an ugly chart:

http://www.gao.gov/cghome/whitehousewal ... /img5.html

That is ugly. So Social Security including the new Medicare Part D looks to be the major contributor of the increase. Also, as ugly as that looks I would like to see the debt to GDP ratio. I am guess our government's debt ratio is better than a lot of corporations. I am in no way a fan of big government and I think we need to cut a lot of stupd expendatures, but I am guessing these numbers aren't quite as ugly in that light.

I agree -- the ratios are likely much better than many/most corporations. But corporations are supposed to have some degree of risk built into them, whereas the U.S. government is theoretically zero risk from an investors point of view.

The sheer magnitude of the numbers don't bother me as much as the trend. That's a huge jump in a four year period.