Numbers and stuff

Last night my wife and I were watching a movie and were interrupted by a phone call. A friend of my wife's from California was making a promised call-back and they spoke for about 40 minutes. In the meantime, I was left with the dogs and the VCR remote...

So being me, I started flipping around. Being the geek that I am, I settled on the replay of Alan Greenspan's testimony yesterday to the House Budget Committee. I didn't catch the whole thing, but a couple of things really jumped out at me:

1. In 2008, spending on social-net programs (SS, Medicare) will grow to 8% of GDP.
2. By 2030, that share will grow to 13% of GDP.

It stuck out because numerous times I've read my good friend Space on the verge of an aneurysm discussing the evils of the Defense budget. Which, by the way, only constitutes about 3-4% of GDP. And isn't guaranteed an automatic increase from year-to-year.