![]() ![]() But that means the pie chart represents only about one-third of federal spending. To get numbers that approximate this, the pie chart cherry-picks just discretionary spending. the ratio of military spending to food and agriculture spending in the full budget is 4-to-1, rather than 57-to-1.Ī more accurate representation would be this one:Ī social-media meme says that 57 percent of federal spending goes to the military and just 1 percent goes to food and agriculture, including food stamps. ![]() Rather than the federal budget being dominated by the military, the budget is actually dominated by spending on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Food and agriculture quadruples from 1 percent to 4 percent due to the inclusion of food stamps, a mandatory program, and agricultural income and price supports.Ĭalculating it this way severely undercuts the graphic’s message.Social Security - a category not even included in the pie chart now circulating on social media feeds - rises from 0 percent to 25 percent.The "health" share zooms from 5 percent to 26 percent, once expenditures on Medicare and Medicaid are counted.The "military" share, including spending on homeland security, shrinks from 57 percent to 16 percent.If we look at all of federal spending, the picture changes: In other words, the chart, despite referring broadly to "federal spending," only counts about one-third of federal spending - the discretionary part. About 60 percent of all federal spending is considered mandatory, with 34 percent considered discretionary and 6 percent devoted to interest. More problematic, though, is that the pie chart ignores mandatory spending. For instance, the pie chart significantly understates the amount of spending going to health and energy. The pie chart’s figures aren’t far off if you’re looking just at discretionary spending, though even here there are some differences. * "Remainder" includes legislative branch, judicial branch, independent agencies and departments of Commerce, Interior, and Treasury, minus offsetting receipts. With that background, let’s now take a look at how the figures in the pie chart compare to a breakdown of fiscal 2015 discretionary spending (the third column), and to fiscal 2015 total spending (that is, discretionary plus mandatory spending, in the final column).Ĭategory's share of 2015 discretionary spendingĬategory's share of all 2015 spending (including both discretionary and mandatory spending) These programs effectively run on autopilot unless Congress changes the formula, making this type of spending more insulated from lawmakers and the president than discretionary spending. For each mandatory program, the amount spent is tied directly to the number of people deemed eligible by age or income level. The other major category is mandatory spending, which is sometimes referred to as "entitlements." Spending within this category is determined by a formula, and the big pieces are three familiar programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Most spending by cabinet departments and independent agencies falls under this category, and it’s "discretionary" in the sense that if political leaders want to raise, or lower, the amount of spending for a given purpose, they can do so by tinkering with appropriations bills. The levels of discretionary spending are determined through the congressional appropriations process, with both houses of Congress and the president ultimately signing off on an agreed level of spending. Most federal spending can be categorized as discretionary or mandatory. To understand them, we’ll first provide some background on how federal spending works. That said, we found some fundamental problems with the graphic’s calculations and conclusions. And since the chart uses some non-standard categories for federal spending, we had to make a few assumptions about which departmental spending should be placed in what category. For starters, the chart isn’t dated, so we used estimated figures for fiscal year 2015. To check the accuracy of this pie chart, we had to make a few assumptions. And so ends today’s lesson in Republican logic." The caption says, "Somewhere within the tiny orange sliver at the bottom is the food stamp program that Republicans blame for our budget deficit. The pie chart is headlined, "Look closely at this chart of federal spending." It says spending on the "military" accounts for 57 percent of the federal dollar, with other categories ranging from 1 percent to 6 percent. Is federal spending on the military about 50 times higher than on food stamps? That’s the message of a pie chart now circulating on the Internet. ![]()
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