What is growing faster? Social Security or Defense?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has an interesting analysis of the growth in federal spending since 2001. The analysis considers both inflation and population growth, but excludes interest costs. You might quarrel with the elimination of interest, but, doing so, does not nullify the Center's conclusions, one of which is that defense spending not related to the wars has grown at a much faster rate than the growth rate of so-called 'entitlements' and domestic discretionary programs. Also, the analysis shows that defense spending has increased from 3.6% to 5.6 % of GDP in just seven years; estimates are that it would take over twenty years for Social Security expenditures to jump two points.