It is very common on-line to see people debating passionately about a given topic despite the fact they know next to nothing on the subject they're talking about.  I recently wrote about this issue here.  Passion is good.  Passionate ignorance is not. 

For economic discussions, here are some useful charts, courtesy of the congressional budget office.  They're not "spun". They're just figures that help people know how tax dollars are collected and spent. How they are used, twisted, or manipulated differs from person to person.  But for starters, let's just put them out there so that others can at least have some grounding:

Chart 1: http://www.budget.house.gov/chart0125051.pdf

This chart displays where tax money comes from and what it is spent on.

Chart 2: http://www.budget.house.gov/chart0125052.pdf

This chart is useful for displaying the historical trends on the national debt. How much debt we have compared to our overall economic output.

Chart 3: http://www.budget.house.gov/chart0125058.pdf

This chart shows the growth of different kinds of spending. This is useful in showing that non-defense discretionary spending has been the fastest increasing category.

Chart 4: http://www.budget.house.gov/chart01250512.pdf

This chart displays how many people are working in the United States.

Chart 5: http://www.budget.house.gov/defensegdp030905.pdf

This is national defense spending as a % of GDP

Chart 6: http://www.budget.house.gov/discret2chart030905.pdf

This is how much we have been spending on education at the federal level for the past few years

Chart 7: http://www.budget.house.gov/growth4chrt030905.pdf

This is the unemployment rate over the past 35 years.

Chart 8: http://www.budget.house.gov/incomtax030905.pdf

This chart displays who is paying the taxes. For example, the top .6% income earners pay about 27% of the taxes. The bottom 36% pay less than 5% of the taxes.

Chart 9: http://www.budget.house.gov/lgstdeficits030905.pdf

This chart displays the worst budget deficits since the post-war (world war II) era as a % of GDP.  Reagan has 4 of the top 10. Bush Sr. has 1. Clinton has 2.  Oh, and George W. Bush? Zero of the top 10.

Chart 10: http://www.budget.house.gov/netinterest030905.pdf

This chart displays how much of the budget is consumed paying interest in the debt. In 1996 it reached its peak consuming over 15% of the budget. Last year it was less than half that.

Chart 11: http://www.budget.house.gov/lgcausdeficit030905.pdf

This chart shows what is causing the deficits today.

So there you go.  Next time you get into a debate on taxes, spending, deficits, etc. These charts should be helpful so that you at least have a good idea what the facts are.