[nhebb]

It's far lower than that. There's a fake pie chart floating around the internet showing Defense at 57% of the federal budget. For 2019, the real number was 12%. In previous years it was about 15%.

[kasey_junk]

It depends on how you categorize things. The 50% numbers come from discretionary budgets & are accurate. But ‘most’ federal spending is not discretionary. It’s old people care.

[burfog]

There really isn't any non-discretionary spending. The closest we have is payments specified in international treaties, and even that can simply not be paid. All the rest is just a couple congressional votes and a presidential signature away from being eliminated.

[nhebb]

Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are considered mandatory spending because politicians tend to like being reelected.

[kasey_junk]

That and it doesn’t go through the standard appropriations process.

[nhebb]

Discretionary spending is about 1/3 of the budget, and, yeah, defense is half of that, but when the GP wrote that "military spending takes up more than half of the budget" it paints a misleading picture.