The way the federal government runs things already  is bad enough, but it’ll just get worse in the years ahead, according to the  government’s own top-level number crunchers.

In fiscal year 2011 — Oct. 1, 2010, to Sept. 30,  2011 — the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that the federal  government spent $3.6 trillion, or 24 percent of the gross domestic product ­— 24 percent of the monetary value of all the goods and services produced  in the United States in that year, the highest federal-spending-to-GDP ratio  since World War II.

Federal outlays averaged 19.6 percent and 19.8  percent of GDP, respectively, during the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton  administrations.

The CBO reports that total federal tax revenues in  fiscal year 2011 were $2.2 trillion, against $3.6 trillion in spending,  producing a shortfall of nearly $1.4 trillion in red ink — a $1.4 trillion  deficit added to the federal debt and paid for by borrowing and delivering the  bill to future taxpayers.

Social Security payouts by the federal government in  fiscal 2011 totaled $731 billion. Another $769 billion was paid out in federal  benefits during the same period in three health insurance programs — Medicare,  Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. An additional $230 billion  went for interest payments on the federal debt.

In just these three categories — Social Security, the  aforementioned health insurance programs and interest payments on the debt — federal payouts consumed 79 percent of the total tax revenues collected by the  federal government in fiscal 2011.

More.