That graph is broken:

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.ht...

If government is spending 40% of the GDP then taxes are around 40% of the GDP.

Unless the government was to engage in 'deficit spending' -- e.g. spending money it doesn't have by seeking loans from foreign countries.

Oh course, that would never happen. :)

Our deficit is significant but our 13.84 Trillion GDP means deficit spending of 1/2 Trillion a year is less than 5%. His graph placed taxes around 12% of GDP which is just so far from the truth that it's almost meaningless.

Good catch. The increase in taxes is actually greater than shown in the graph, since payroll taxes have increased enormously.