Federal Indebtedness Increases $20 Trillion During Bush Presidency

Bruce Bartlett runs the numbers of finds public endebtedness has increased $20 trillion since Bush has become president - mainly due to the the drug benefit.

Medicare and Medicaid are huge issues:
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According to CBO, spending for Medicare and Medicaid will more than double from 4.1 percent of the gross domestic product to 9.2 percent over the next 25 years and more than triple to 12.6 percent by 2050. But this assumes Congress will show some restraint and keep these programs from rising as rapidly as they have in the past. Under CBO's high-spending alternative -- which I find more likely -- spending for Medicare and Medicaid triples by 2030 and rises to 21.9 percent of GDP by 2050. Total federal spending on all programs is now 20.2 percent of GDP.
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The % of GDP spent on interest of the public debt within 45 years could exceed total government expenditure now.
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If revenues are held constant at their current 18.3 percent of GDP, the debt explodes, causing the government's interest expense to rise from 11/2 percent of GDP to 4.6 percent by 2030 and 12.4 percent by 2050 under the lower-spending scenario. Under the high-spending option, interest payments rise to 21.4 percent of GDP by 2050.
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But this probably isn't anything we should worry about now. Not when there are probably still some baseball players using steroids. Gotta keep those priorities straight.