One of the most divisive issues in this country right now is the size of the government.

And understandably so.

We have a huge budget deficit and $15 trillion of debt to contend with, so the size of the government--and government spending--is obviously important.

Unfortunately, this topic has now been "politicized," which means that you can't talk about it without being cheered or jeered by fans of each respective political team.

And that, unfortunately, leads to a lot of facts being ignored or distorted.

But both political teams are responsible for the debt-and-deficit mess we're in--and so, I am sorry to say, are the rest of us.

And fixing that mess is going to take decades, regardless of who's in power.

So, let's put aside politics for a few minutes and look at some facts...