By Congressman Josh Brecheen 
Congress passed an unbelievable milestone in 2023 that largely went unnoticed and unreported.
Lawmakers in Washington now spend an entire year voting on elements of a discretionary budget that is based on 100 percent borrowed dollars—money taken from our kids and grandkids.
The only thing paid for is the part of the budget that is governed by statutes—what we call mandatory spending. In this part of the budget, Congress can no longer appropriate, but only determine eligibility.
Now let me break this down.
In 1960, America’s national debt stood at $286 billion. This is in sharp contrast to May of 2024, as our debt now stands over $34 trillion and increases by almost $1 trillion every hundred days.
The most significant change to our national budget during the past 60+ years is the shift in the percent divide between the United States’ mandatory and discretionary spending priorities.
Mandatory spending has always been first to the trough on receiving federal funding and is governed by statutes that are not annually decided upon by Congress. Discretionary spending is funded through the annual appropriations process and receives either leftover funding from the annual revenue after mandatory spending priorities are fully funded or is given money the United States must borrow.
Prior to the 1960s, one-third of federal spending was mandatory, while two-thirds of the federal budget was controlled by Congress and considered discretionary. During this period, social security, which was paid for through the self-sustaining payroll tax, accounted for roughly half of all mandatory spending. When President Lyndon B. Johnson implemented his Great Society program in 1965 and created new government programs such as Medicaid, these were added to our mandatory spending budget.
During the roughly six decades since programs like Medicaid were added to mandatory spending, the percentages between the mandatory and discretionary budgets have proportionally changed, with mandatory spending rising from approximately 30% in 1962 to 70% in 2024 and discretionary spending decreasing from approximately 70% to 30%. This means that today’s federal spending breakdown is two-thirds mandatory and only one-third discretionary.
Mandatory spending “includes spending for entitlement programs,” such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, student loans, food stamps, and interest on the debt. Discretionary spending funds are everything contained within the twelve appropriations bills, notably all troop funding, defense contracting, and federal agency funding. These twelve appropriations bills are the funding most often discussed on national media as Congress spends each year debating the discretionary spending levels that now only account for 30% of all spending.
Even though discretionary spending includes more Constitutionally authorized funding priorities, mandatory spending priorities exist as the funding that is always first to the trough, pushing everyone else aside. This is why, in 2023, the entirety of the United States’ $4.4 trillion revenue was consumed by mandatory spending, leaving no revenue left to fund the discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion. Every dime allocated to discretionary spending is now borrowed money. Despite this, food stamps and Medicaid remain first to the trough for funding as they are considered mandatory. Imagine what our Founders would say if they learned troop salaries were second-tier to food stamps and Medicaid.
The Constitution makes it clear that Congress has the authority to “raise and support Armies” and “provide and maintain a Navy,” yet nowhere is it mentioned in the 18 enumerated powers listed in Article I, Section 8 that Congress is authorized to support federal welfare initiatives liked food stamps. The Father of our Constitution, James Madison, once remarked in keeping with this truth, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.”
To right the ship, we must address unconstitutional initiatives that have led our national debt to explode over the past few decades. If spending cuts are not enacted and the United States does not experience substantial economic growth, hyperinflation is our future.
