The Budget Battle: What you need to know

President Obama today met with House Speaker John Boehner in an effort to reach a budget compromise prior to Friday’s impending shutdown of “non-essential” government services. Both political parties are jockeying to blame the other in the event a shutdown occurs.

Here’s what you need to know about the budget battle, condensed into two charts:

Takeaways:

1. Both federal spending and the federal deficit have grown significantly under the Obama administration.

2. Without cuts in defense, Social Security, or Medicare, or increases in revenue, you could shut down the rest of the government and still have a deficit.