Sometimes you need a picture to understand a policy. So when I say things like "It's hard to make meaningful spending cuts if you don't touch mandatory spending," that doesn't mean much if we can't visualize how much of the budget is mandatory spending -- that is, spending mandated by existing law.
This is what it means: the New York Times has created an awesome interactive Flash
graph of the president's 2011 budget -- with a button that makes all the mandatory spending disappear so you can see exactly how much Obama's spending freeze is leaving warm.
Here's a 30,000-foot view of the budget:
And
here's the budget if you white-out mandatory spending, which includes
Social Security (bottom left box), Medicare and Medicaid (top middle to
right), and income security programs like food stamps and unemployment
insurance. National security, the top left box, is also almost entirely exempt from the freeze.
![budgetboxnonmandatory.jpg](https://swap.stanford.edu/was/20100322163935im_/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/assets_c/2010/02/budgetboxnonmandatory-thumb-454x260.jpg)
If you're thinking about curbing spending, don't judge outlays by which box is biggest today. Also look at the long-term trend, from the CBO. I suppose saying it for the 100th time doesn't make it any more true, but here it is: Our long-term fiscal crisis is a health care crisis, especially a Medicare crisis. That's one reason why I respect Rep. Paul Ryan for sticking out his neck and drawing up a plan to curb health care expenditures in the next twenty years, even if his method -- dramatically slow the growth in Medicare spending -- would be a blunt and unpopular pitch to the AARP.
![570 socialsecuritymedicare.png](https://swap.stanford.edu/was/20100322163935im_/http://business.theatlantic.com/assets_c/2009/09/570%20socialsecuritymedicare-thumb-570x210-15359.png)
Derek - "It's hard to make meaningful spending cuts if you don't touch mandatory spending,"
Let's just keep in mind that that the "mandatory" spending reflects previous congressional legislation.
That which the Government gives, the Government can take away.