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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (31613)	1/20/2009 10:11:04 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71588

OK, if that's your definition of welfare then the majority government spending is welfare. A correction from my earlier statement. Entitlements are closet to 50% of the budget than 60% I took "mandatory spending" as "entitlements", but "mandatory spending" also includes interest on the debt. Here is a breakdown of the 2009 budget. It does not include the various stimulus packages, bailouts etc. * Mandatory spending: $1.89 trillion (+6.2%) o $644 billion - Social Security o $408 billion - Medicare o $224 billion - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) o $360 billion - Unemployment/Welfare/Other mandatory spending o $260 billion - Interest on National Debt * Discretionary spending: $1.21 trillion (+4.9%) o $515.4 billion - United States Department of Defense o $145.2 billion(2008) - Global War on Terror o $70.4 billion - United States Department of Health and Human Services o $59.2 billion - United States Department of Education o $44.8 billion - United States Department of Veterans Affairs o $38.5 billion - United States Department of Housing and Urban Development o $38.3 billion - State and Other International Programs o $37.6 billion - United States Department of Homeland Security o $25.0 billion - United States Department of Energy o $20.8 billion - United States Department of Agriculture o $20.3 billion - United States Department of Justice o $17.6 billion - National Aeronautics and Space Administration o $12.5 billion - United States Department of the Treasury o $11.5 billion - United States Department of Transportation o $10.6 billion - United States Department of the Interior o $10.5 billion - United States Department of Labor o $8.4 billion - Social Security Administration o $7.1 billion - United States Environmental Protection Agency o $6.9 billion - National Science Foundation o $6.3 billion - Judicial branch (United States federal courts) o $4.7 billion - Legislative branch (United States Congress) o $4.7 billion - United States Army Corps of Engineers o $0.4 billion - Executive Office of the President o $0.7 billion - Small Business Administration o $7.2 billion - Other agencies o $39.0 billion(2008) - Other Off-budget Discretionary Spending en.wikipedia.org The spending on entitlement programs would be all the mandatory spending, minus the interest payments, plus the $8.4 bil to run the SSA. You might also add part of the GSA (under "other agencies") and treasury budgets, for the services, facilities, and money they funnel to or take care of for the entitlement program organizations. Plus maybe a share of the interest, the executive office, the legislative branch. For social spending take that plus HHS, HUD, maybe education, maybe Veterans administration (depending on whether you consider this defense, social, or both), maybe most of agriculture (if you consider the farm programs to be welfare, maybe much of commerce (if you consider "corporate welfare").