Federal Spending: the Mandatory and the Discretionary

Federal Spending: the Mandatory and the Discretionary

Federal spending: the mandatory and the discretionary The federal government spent  $6.2 trillion in fiscal year 2023, with $3.8 trillion of that being mandatory spending. That means spending that is essentially on autopilot, as it funds programs with rules set by law that don’t require renewal each year. So, what do Americans get for all this money? Here are the facts. Twenty-two percent of the total federal budget — $1.35 trillion — was for …