And significantly less than all entitlements. So, just as a factual matter, no.

(Note that the VA is both "defense" and "entitlement", so it's not clear which side of the ledger it should be on.)

leaves some questions.

What is it?

Food stamps are $75 billion - that is 2% of the budget.

TANF is 1%.

What is the other 13% (or 1300 basis points)?

Also Government employee pensions, Disability, railroad employee pensions, TriCare, Universal Service Fund (the "Obama phones" conservatives freak out about despite the fact that the program was created under the GWB administration) and SSI

...individual persons and their employers. Everything else in your illustration is paid for out of the federal budget by taxes. Social Security is NOT AN ENTITLEMENT. Social Security is a type of annuity or insurance that WE THE PEOPLE INDEPENDENTLY FUND. Social Security is NOT a government expense.

The only reason anyone gets away with even alluding to Social Security as a government expense, is that the federal government manages the program. Federal monies DO NOT go into Social Security. The federal government, however, borrows from the Social Security piggybank at every turn.

When we talk about cutting the "Social Security entitlement," what we are really talking about is a government that is attempting to welsh on it's I.O.U.s.

...dedicated revenue source and dedicated purpose. The checks may come from the U.S. Treasury, but the funds come from the Social Security Trust Fund, which is not owned by the U.S. Government. The Social Security Trust Fund is OURS, the people's. We ALLOW the government to manage the fund for us. And the monies the fund contains are OURS, not the federal government's.

The trust fund is a way to use excess payroll levy monies to keep the cost of borrowing down by having a ready purchaser of Treasury bonds. And it's a way, starting a few years from now, to borrow money to pay off our Social Security obligations without adding to the net national debt (we can borrow dollar-for-dollar to redeem the 3 trillion in bonds in the trust fund without making the total debt go up). It's not a savings account of any sort, though I recognize that it sometimes gets talked about that way. Social Security is a transfer system, not a retirement account.

... etc. and your assertion that "defense" isn't the biggest is no longer true.

...a lot of law enforcement (Secret Service, Coast Guard, etc.)

But defense is still significantly less than "entitlements". Discretionary spending in general is significantly lower than mandatory spending, and unlike discretionary spending we have some say over what mandatory spending in the future will be.

Even if we give all of DHS and DOE to "defense", that's 1950 basis points, for a total of 20.64% for defense as a whole, compared to 19.63% for SS and 56.74% for all mandatory non-interest (aka "entitlement&quot spending.

... just what is it that the defense budget defending?

it was voted down.

There is no Simpson Bowles report - never has been.

Bowles is on the Boards of Directors of many high profile corps and Simpson, well let's just say he's seen his better days(and they were none too good).

So why are these august personages invited on tv shows? They are failures at their own commission and other than that, they are not of national importance on their own.

And, I'd like to add: fuck'em both - may they dry up and blow away.

and contracts for the Iraq war to his and Dick Cheney's buddies. The companies were war profiteers.

But while privatizing the companies' profits from Iraq, the Republicans want to socialize the costs by making social security and medicare beneficiaries pay for that waste!

The Shock Doctrine from Naomi Klein? hummmm? Me thinks the corporatista' media that carries the water won't do that.

How about some Naomi on 'Face the Nation'? I am sick of hearing about the supposed 'fiscal cliff' they aren't serious it's all about what more they can steal from we the little people.



I am all for the Eisenhower rates oh but the media are not going to ever ask that question. Or how about we lower the retirement age not raise it!

I've found the Richard Hammond's Crash Course and the Top Gear countdown is much better for my blood pressure.