Reflections from one year's worth of graphs and data

Over at the American Thinker, Randall Hoven has published a "Chart o' the Day" for a year now. What has he learned?

• Government has grown by obscene amounts since William McKinley was president. In 1900, federal, state, and local governments combined spent under 5% of Gross Domestic Product. Today they spend 40% of GDP or more and account for half of all health care spending.
• The federal government alone spends more than 20% of GDP, owns 29% of all land, and controls virtually all ocean activity, including oil drilling, for miles offshore.
• This puts us square into the mix of European welfare states in terms of government spending and debt.
• Federal government debt is on an unsustainable path, set to grow beyond 100% of GDP soon, and driven mostly by increased spending on Medicare and Medicaid. (And not defense.)
• Yet many federal programs are ineffective and/or going broke: Medicare, Social Security Disability Insurance, the Post Office, the War on Poverty, education,  affirmative action, other race-based initiatives, the minimum wage here and in Samoa, bank regulations, regulation in general, etc.

Then came Obama...

Hoven's post is an invaluable one, summarizing the inevitable havoc wrought by the 'progressives'.

Read the whole thing.