Chart of the Day

From the Heritage Foundation's 2009 Federal Revenue and Spending Book of Charts:


source: Heritage Foundation

The think tank explains:

In 2008, publicly held debt as a percentage of the economy (GDP) was 40.8 percent, nearly five points below the historical average. Under President Obama's budget, this figure would more than double to 82.4 percent by 2019, and interest payments alone on this debt would be $100 billion more than Obama projects to spend on the entire Department of Defense.