The FY'08 Discretionary Spending Request
February 5, 2007
For more information contact: Christopher Hellman, chellman@armscontrolcenter.org
Highlights | Topline | Weapons | BMD | UAV | Discretionary | Global
The Fiscal Year 2008 budget request includes $930 billion for discretionary spending (the money the President and Congress must decide and act to spend each year), roughly $481 billion of which will go to the Pentagon. The "National Defense" category of the federal budget for FY'08 accounts for over half of all discretionary spending (52 percent). [NOTE: These totals do NOT include funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the $141.7 billion requested for the "Global War on Terror" were included in both the request for the Department of Defense and the total for discretionary spending, the percentage of Pentagon spending of total discretionary spending would jump to over 58 percent.]
The other category of federal spending is mandatory spending, money that is spent in compliance with existing laws that govern the particular program or function. Mandatory spending includes entitlements, money or benefits provided directly to individuals such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Federal Retirement. It also includes interest payments on the national debt.
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Notes: The "Social Security & Medicare" funding in this graph refers to administrative costs associated with these programs, and does not reflect actual benefits paid out.