Where all that increased federal spending has gone

A reader had this to ask about my column on the shrinking federal deficit:

You say: "...federal expenditures are up 19% since 2004, to a projected $2.7 trillion in fiscal 2007 (on the whole, this has been the most spendthrift Administration since Lyndon Johnson's)."

Yet, most programs that benefit or potentially benefit ordinary citizens have received some level of cuts during the Bush years or, at best, have remained level. So, where is all this money going?

According to the historical tables provided by the White House Office of Management and Budget, the most dramatic spending increase from 2000 to 2006 was in defense, up from $295 billion, or 3% of GDP, in 2000 to $520 billion, or 4% of GDP, in 2006. Other big gainers were Medicare spending, which went from from $194.1 billion, or 2% of GDP, to $324.9 billion, or 2.5%; and nondefense discretionary spending, which went from $319.9 billion, or 3.3% of GDP, to $496.7 billion, or 3.8%. That latter category of course breaks down into all sorts of subcategories (education, community and regional development, agriculture, etc.) that I just don't have the energy to go into in detail, and it actually peaked as a share of GDP in 2003, at 3.9%, and has subsided somewhat since. So really, defense and Medicare are the Big Two.