The Charts That Show Why the U.S. Is 'Screwed'

Henry Blodget over at Business Insider has a grim look at some charts from Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkis -- charts that Blodget says show America's debt problem is so bad the only answer is raising taxes and lowering spending.* How bad is that? Blodget's headline says "the U.S. is screwed."

Blodget writes:

The presentation shows that we spend a lot on Education and Defense, but that isn't the real problem. The real problem is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (especially Medicare and Medicaid).  These programs are wildly more expensive than any other budget items, and they're also growing like weeds.

As Mary's charts show, there's almost no chance that we can "grow our way out of the problem."

Here are a couple charts from that presentation:

You'd be wise to check out the rest of the charts here.

*An earlier version of this story incorrrectly stated lower taxes and increase spending. It's the opposite. We've corrected the language.