I plugged my first response into the article's comment section, and the author responded with this:

The large increases since the 50s are on two items - military and interest on the Reagan/Bush debt.

The first is what Eisenhower warned us about: military spending. The total military budget is approx $1 trillion now, which is more than all the other countries on earth COMBINED. I tried to post the like to this last night, and the comment never was posted but look at Wikipedia which breaks this down.

The second is interest on the Reagan/Bush debt. We now spend about $500 billion a year just on interest on the money that has been borrowed since Reagan cut taxes on the rich. This is more than the entire US budget was when Reagan took office and started the borrowing.

I responded with this:

^Your facts, again, are grossly incorrect.

In the 1950s, the Defense budget was in the $55 billion range (including veterans benefits), or about $378 billion in 2000 dollars. In 2008, the Defense budget was about $701 billion, or about $557 billion in 2000 dollars. A factor of 1.5

Physical resources spending (including transportation, energy, natural resources, commerce, and community and regional development) went from $18.8 billion (in 2000 dollars) in 1955 to $128.7 billion in 2008. A factor of 6.9.

Interest went from about $33.3 billion (in 2000 dollars) in 1955 to $201 billion in 2008. A factor of 6.

Social spending (human resources, including education, health, and income security, but subtracting veterans benefits) went from $70.3 billion (in 2000 dollars) in 1955 to $1.44 TRILLION in 2008. A factor of 20.4

In 1955, defense was 62 percent of the budget. Human resources was about 22 percent, physical resources was 4 percent, and interest was 7.1 percent.

In 2008, defense was 21 percent of the budget, human resources was 64 percent, physical resources was 5.4 percent, and interest was 8.5 percent.

As you can see, defense and interest aren't the spending problems. Social spending is, particularly entitlements.

The information comes from Table 3.1 of the White House's 2010 budget document. It is also the source of the inflation multipliers.^

As an aside, his other numbers are wrong, too.

The Federal budget in 1980 was $591 billion, or about $1.18 trillion in 2000 dollars. Even if you include off-budget interest in 2009, the total interest is about $296 billion in 2000 dollars. Nowhere close.