Here is my entry for the ReadWriteWeb Tableau Visualization contest.  I used the Government spending data set and wanted to find out how spending has changed over the years compared to GDP.  I also added in the party affiliation of each president as well as the ability to filter on which year of their respective administrations we want to look at.

As expected, spending has risen along with GDP and Democrats are as likely as Republicans to be above or below average.  What I found fascinating was how generally even the line is until last year with the stimulus bill.  The spending is such an outlier to historical trends that it is exceptional.