Eeeeek. I knew I'd made a mistake but I am a weak, weak person. As noted, economics is a bit beyond me except to say that the above (and, OK, clever) pie chart is just the teensiest bit misleading. "The last time the GOP controlled both houses" is the clue... . It could more accurately say "Just before Bush drained the Clinton surplus, started two wars, tanked the economy and drove it into the deepest recession since the Depression." That would be my biased choice anyway and I'd use sock puppets, not a pie.

More than anyone might want to know, but here's the GAO numbers and charts:

http://www.gao.gov/special.pubs/longterm/debt/budgetdebt.html

But I don't think we should veer this way (said the guy who just did. Did I mention what a weak person I am?). Let's assume the above is somewhat accurate. OK. Now what? If you think government is too big, what don't you want? Should, as SierraNevada cheerfully tongue-in-cheek proposed, the public lands -- Yosemite, Constitution Hall, Civil War battlefields etc. -- be privatized? No question the private sector could make money off the popular parks and sell off anything that just doesn't make the cut. So let's just keep it to the National Parks & Forests as somehow representative of government waste or something we don't think the US should support. What would you cut? Should we close parks? Which ones? Not put out fires? Not rescue people, respond to motor vehicle accidents, wait for an ambulance from the nearest town to render medical aid instead of rangers who are paid to take advanced medical training.

That's the discussion needed which is being otherwise avoided and disguised by talk of trillions and billions and even the word sequestration. It's real people being laid off, real services being cut. If that's the choice, OK, but it should be made with clear understanding of the actual choices and consequences.

When the government was shut down some years ago and a number of parks closed, many otherwise conservative communities suddenly realized that the local and often hated park was drawing in people and money for them. Shazzam, suddenly they (among others) pressured the republicans (Gingrich et al) to quickly reversed course and passed a budget.

g.

None of the views expressed here in any way represent those of the unidentified agency that I work for or, often, reality. It's just me, fired up by coffee and powerful prose.