The NY Times has a great graphic here that's interactive and which I can't figure out how to get it into this post (so click on the link and check it out). It shows very clearly how little of the budget (only about 1/3 of total government expenditures) is actually controlled by the budgeting process. The rest - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, interest on the debt, etc. is all set by law (and the interest payments are mandatory, so long as we don't want to default) and can't be changed without changing other laws. Of that 1/3 left, fully 50% (1/6 of the total) is military spending.
Consequently, when you hear proposals to slash various programs in the budget, or freeze the budget, but exclude veterans benefits and military spending, you're actually talking only about a pretty miniscule percentage of the budget - only about 1/6 of federal spending falls into the "non-mandatory and non-national-security" rubric.
The other interesting thing to check out on the Times' graphic is to see how your pre-conceptions of how big various programs are match up to reality. For instance, there are lots of folks out there who think that welfare is one of the biggest federal expenditures. In fact, welfare (TANF + foodstamps + section 8 housing vouchers) make up only about 3% of the budget.
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