Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by rayiner on Saturday February 22, 2025 @03:47PM
(#43143059)
The full budget is $6.9 trillion, not $4.4 trillion.
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by pclmulqdq on Saturday February 22, 2025 @07:29PM
(#43144887)
I am bad at addition, but I was going from 2023's numbers, which were indeed close to $6.4 trillion, not $4.4 trillion. Mandatory spending alone was $3.8 trillion.
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by dboreham on Saturday February 22, 2025 @05:56PM
(#43144157)
Because people have been gasslit into believing that social security and medicare are funded by the same-named payroll withholding contributions.
Re:DOGE's Only Public Ledger Is Riddled with Mistakes
by insane_dreamer on Sunday February 23, 2025 @09:54AM
(#43149660)
That's because the SS/Medicare are not discretionary which means that those are basically predetermined and not set by Congress every year.
So when we talk about the "budget", what really matters as far as politicians are concerned, is the discretionary part, which they can control (and which in theory voters have some control over through their election of congressmen), and defense takes up at least half of that.
However, the discretionary part of the budget is less than half the size of the mandatory part of the budget. If the entire discretionary budget were cut to $0, between mandatory spending and interest, there would still be a government deficit.
That sleight-of-hand is how $900 billion of military spending becomes "most of the budget" when the full budget is $4.4 trillion.