Anyone care to add up the entitlement spending + defense since 1945?
From 1946 to 2009, we have spent $11.769 trillion on national defense. In the same period we have spent $31.13 trillion on human resources generally, of which $11.17 trillion is Social Security, $7.43 trillion for income security, $5.25 trillion for Medicare, $3.92 trillion on “health” (not exactly sure what that encompasses), and $1.5 trillion on veterans benefits.
One can easily total these amounts by downloading Excel tables from this site:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
Thank you very much, Ravenman. 
So, rather than “dwarf the amount that this country has spent on both national defense and all entitlements combined”, it’s actually the other way around.
I’m rather impressed.