Statistics don't lie.

 SPENDING AS A PERCENT OF GDP.  These charts are interesting to the extent one understands that as long as interest rates are low all this debt is not a critical issue. Interest rates will rise if the markets fear inflation.  Inflation will occur if the government (Fed) prints money excessively.  Since the Fed is buying the government bonds being issued on an ongoing basis in order to fund the deficit between what the government takes in in taxes and what it spends on all the various programs (entitlement programs and all the rest), in essence it is simply creating excess dollars.  Excess dollars eventually translates into inflation.  Watch out below if we continue on the path we are on now.