National Budget

In public finance, discretionary spending is government spending implemented through an appropriations bill. This spending is an optional part of fiscal policy, in contrast to entitlement programs for which funding is mandatory. Mandatory spending only makes up about two-thirds of the total federal budget - so mandatory spending charts are only showing part of the budget - the part that doesn't get negotiated each year. The fact that we routinely choose to allocate over 50% of our budget to defense shows where our national priorities lay. http://www.globalresearch.ca/more-than-50-of-us.../18852