It’s hard to analyze a problem without facts; arguing without facts is easy but futile.

Now that the American public has been slapped hard enough to pay attention to the national budget, it would be an excellent moment for all of us to know what we’re talking about. The Concord Coalition is trying to make that happen.

Sara Imhof, the organization’s Midwest regional director, conducted a budget exercise last week as part of a “deficit town hall meeting” held by Congressman Leonard Bos-well. The Concord Coalition does this sort of thing across the country, working with Democrats and Republicans alike, hoping to educate Americans about the budget.

In a visit to our office, Imhof shared numbers that put our national situation in perspective.

The chart covering federal revenues shows that 27 percent of revenues come from individual income taxes, 22 percent from payroll taxes and just 5 percent from corporate income taxes – and 40 percent is borrowed.

As for the spending side, 21 percent goes to health care, 20 percent to Social Security and 19 percent to national defense. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid consume 41 percent of the federal budget; the latter two, plus the interest on our national debt, are projected to grow much faster than Social Security, even as defense spending might decline.

Mandatory spending made up 35 percent of the budget in 1971; this year, it’s approximately 57 percent.

And yet, when the American public is asked about cutting spending, we respond that we would love to cut foreign aid, and we also favor cutting back on the environment, mass transit, agriculture and housing. Those areas each account for something like 1 or 2 percent of total expenditures.

There’s little support for cutting Social Security or Medicare.

Strip away the emotion, look at the numbers and try again, America. It’s simple arithmetic.