Except for a brief spike when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) infused federal dollars into the economy, Pentagon and related military spending has been higher than domestic discretionary spending for decades. Under the president’s fiscal year 2017 discretionary budget, military spending would account for 54 percent, while spending on all non-military discretionary programs would account for 46 percent. This chart shows how funding for military and non-military discretionary programs has changed over time. Share this chart: Military, Non-Military Discretionary Spending The remaining 7 percent of the budget, or $303 billion, would go towards interest on the federal debt. Under the president’s proposal, $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending would make up less than a third (27 percent) of all federal spending while 66 percent of spending, or $2.78 trillion, would be spent on mandatory spending programs. This chart shows how mandatory spending and discretionary spending, discussed above, fit into the president’s overall budget along with interest on the federal debt. Share this chart: Mandatory and Discretionary Spending and Interest on Debt This chart shows how the president’s proposed rules would allocate that spending: Lawmakers do not choose the exact amount of money spent on these programs, because they are dependent on the number of people who qualify for benefits, but rule changes can indirectly affect how much is spent. Mandatory spending includes earned-benefit programs that people pay into, such as Social Security and Medicare, and accounts for 66 percent of all spending in the president’s proposed 2017 budget. President Obama proposes to spend nearly $2.8 trillion in mandatory spending in fiscal year 2017, an increase of more than 5 percent over the 2016 enacted level. This chart shows how the president would allocate that spending: It does not include earned benefits programs that people pay into like Social Security and Medicare. Discretionary spending is the portion of the federal budget that Congress determines annually in the appropriations process and accounts for 27 percent of all spending in the president’s proposed 2016 budget. Compared to 2016, discretionary spending would decrease in every category except veterans’ benefits and labor – including education, science, and international affairs. President Obama proposes to spend $1.15 trillion in discretionary spending in fiscal year 2017. Keeping with a trend that has spanned decades, the president proposes to set aside just 2 percent – or $85 billion – of the total federal budget for education spending, including K-12 and higher education initiatives. Social Security and labor, Medicare and health programs, and military spending will make up 76 percent of the total budget, leaving just 24 percent, or a little over $1 trillion of the $4.2 trillion total, to spend on all other federal programs. This includes every type of federal spending, from funding for discretionary programs like infrastructure improvements and job training to mandatory spending programs such as Social Security and Medicare, as well as interest payments on the federal debt. This chart shows how President Obama proposes allocating $4.2 trillion in total federal spending in fiscal year 2017, an increase of four percent over 2016 total spending. These pictures tell the story of the priorities found in the president’s budget. It’s the president’s vision for the country in fiscal year 2017 and beyond, reflects input and spending requests from every federal agency, and is the benchmark by which all subsequent spending legislation will be measured. Though the budget ultimately enacted by Congress for fiscal year 2017 may look very different from the budget proposal released by the president, the president’s budget is important. And one thing we know about budgets is that they are all about priorities: What should we spend money on? How are we going to raise money for the programs we want to fund? President Obama recently released his fiscal year 2017 budget proposal. The National Priorities Project breaks down President Obama’s $4.2 trillion budget proposal in a series of pictures.
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