One problem I have with this is lumping Social Security into the who federal budget. SS has a separate tax and a separate fund. Some people will look at that and say "wow look how much SS is costing us!" but it's really just paying back money that was put into that system. This is often confused because the SS fund is only allowed to "invest" it's money in treasury bonds. The result of that is that the government "borrowed" the money in the fund and spent it, and when the inevitable time comes (baby boomers retire) that there is a net flow from the bonds back out to the recipients of SS checks, it's gonna feel like a budget problem in congress.

This inclusion of SS into the mix also makes it look like 30 percent of the budget is money going to individuals, but really 23 percent or so is just SS payments to individuals. By including it here it downplays the crony project spending.