Chart of the day

From Scott Grannis:

Pay particular attention to the spending spike at the end -- it's going to have a fearsome impact on the debt. Greg Mankiw highlights new reports that the national debt is projected to grow by over $9 trillion over the next ten years, which is $1.6 trillion more than all the debt accumulated up until this point.

Update: More perspective:

In 1980, our national debt stood at about $800 billion, accumulated over 200 years. In less than three decades, that debt has increased twelvefold. The national debt will exceed $11 trillion in 2010, and is projected to exceed $20 trillion by 2020. (Even if interest rates stayed at around 5 percent, the annual interest on the national debt alone will be well more than $1 trillion in 10 years.)

Read the whole thing, which addresses the budgeting process.