National Debts, Ours and Theirs

The Skeptical Optimist has created some very nice graphics that put America’s current national debt in perspective, both historically and in proportion to other countries’ debts. I’d steal the graphs, but they’re very pretty and represent a lot of work by the Optimist, so be sure to check them out on his site.
While the facts are by no means as bad as they are generally represented, I’d very much like to see federal spending cut back. But reducing (or even materially moderating the growth of) government spending seems to be the lost conservative ideal, receding farther and farther into the distance as, year after year, would-be conservative administrations fail to achieve spending restraint.