All spending is discretionary (or, I think we are screwed)

Don’t hammer me on the absolute accuracy of the dollars in this article, though they do seem to be borne out by spending info I found at Wikipedia.

That said, we paid more than $100 billion and $50 billion for our adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively, in 2010.  Those numbers don’t count money spent from the $513 billion Defense Department budget.  Even if no other money had been spent (and I’m sure that isn’t true) those two wars represent about 25% of “defense” spending and just under 5% of all spending.

According to Wikipedia, the Federal government took in $2.16 trillion in taxes in Fiscal Year 2010 and spent about $3.45 trillion.  Here’s a breakdown of Federal spending for the same year:

Mandatory spending: $2.009 trillion (-20.1%)

$695 billion (+4.9%) – Social Security

$571 billion (−15.2%) – Other mandatory programs

$453 billion (+6.6%) – Medicare

$290 billion (+12.0%) – Medicaid

$164 billion (+18.0%) – Interest on National Debt

$11 billion (+275%) – Potential disaster costs

$0 billion (−100%) – Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP)

$0 billion (−100%) – Financial stabilization efforts

Discretionary spending: $1.368 trillion (+13.1%)

$663.7 billion (+12.7%) – Department of Defense (including Overseas Contingency Operations)

$78.7 billion (−1.7%) – Department of Health and Human Services

$72.5 billion (+2.8%) – Department of Transportation

$52.5 billion (+10.3%) – Department of Veterans Affairs

$51.7 billion (+40.9%) – Department of State and Other International Programs

$47.5 billion (+18.5%) – Department of Housing and Urban Development

$46.7 billion (+12.8%) – Department of Education

$42.7 billion (+1.2%) – Department of Homeland Security

$26.3 billion (−0.4%) – Department of Energy

$26.0 billion (+8.8%) – Department of Agriculture

$23.9 billion (−6.3%) – Department of Justice

$18.7 billion (+5.1%) – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

$13.8 billion (+48.4%) – Department of Commerce

$13.3 billion (+4.7%) – Department of Labor

$13.3 billion (+4.7%) – Department of the Treasury

$12.0 billion (+6.2%) – Department of the Interior

$10.5 billion (+34.6%) – Environmental Protection Agency

$9.7 billion (+10.2%) – Social Security Administration

$7.0 billion (+1.4%) – National Science Foundation

$5.1 billion (−3.8%) – Corps of Engineers

$5.0 billion (+100%) – National Infrastructure Bank

$1.1 billion (+22.2%) – Corporation for National and Community Service

$0.7 billion (0.0%) – Small Business Administration

$0.6 billion (−14.3%) – General Services Administration

$19.8 billion (+3.7%) – Other Agencies

$105 billion – Other

Some numbers that jump out at you:

"Mandatory" spending was down 20.1% and discretionary spending was up 13.1% over 2009. 

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending totaled $1.438 trillion, about 40% of all spending.

The Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, State and Homeland Security account for $810.6 billion or about 23% of all spending.

About 39 cents of every dollar spent was borrowed.

End spending in the seven categories just mentioned and the government is in the black.  Can’t do that?

End all the wars, all the economic aid to other countries, shut down all foreign military operations, cut off all economic aid for seniors, students, children and others who have assets or private income that they could survive on, end the Bush tax cuts, end government subsidies to businesses and you might get close to the same point. 

And you’d get a Tea Party membership card in the mail.  And a few wars that threaten our economic interests.  And some more dead or sick little kids.  An even less educated, less able next generation.  A few more seniors dead before their time.

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.