What is included in discretionary spending?

What is included in discretionary spending?

A discretionary expense is a cost that a business or household can survive without, if necessary. Discretionary expenses are often defined as nonessential spending. Meals at restaurants and entertainment costs are examples of discretionary expenses.

What are the top 3 discretionary spending categories?

Discretionary Spending The largest of these programs are Health and Human Services, Education, and Housing and Urban Development.

What areas are the government spending more discretionary spending on?

More than half of FY 2019 discretionary spending went for national defense, and most of the rest went for domestic programs, including transportation, education and training, veterans’ benefits, income security, and health care (figure 4).

What are the two categories of discretionary spending?

National defense discretionary spending was $714 billion in 2020, comprising 49% of discretionary spending. Non-defense discretionary spending includes a wide array of programs such as education, training, science, technology, housing, transportation, and foreign aid.

What is the largest part of discretionary spending?

By far, the biggest category of discretionary spending is spending on the Pentagon and related military programs.

What is the biggest part of America’s discretionary spending?

Discretionary spending is controlled through the annual appropriations process and includes funding for both national defense and non-defense. Non-defense discretionary programs, or NDD, includes a wide variety of activities including scientific research, housing assistance, veterans’ health care, education, and transportation.

What is the current discretionary budget for 2021?

Discretionary Spending 1 FY 2021 Budget. The Trump administration released its budget on Feb. 10, 2020. It asked for $1.485 trillion in discretionary spending. 2 Discretionary Budget Myth Busters. The media blames the discretionary budget for deficit spending, which has created a huge national debt. 3 Understand the Current Federal Budget:

What are the three types of government spending?

Mandatory and Discretionary Spending The U.S. Treasury divides all federal spending into three groups: mandatory spending, discretionary spending and interest on debt. Mandatory and discretionary spending account for more than ninety percent of all federal spending, and pay for all of the government services and programs on which we rely.

What happened to discretionary spending between 1973 and 2013?

Between 1973 and 2013 discretionary spending fell from 53 percent to about 35 percent of total federal spending. Relative to the size of the economy, discretionary spending declined from 9.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1973 to a low of 6.0 percent in 1999 before rising back to about 7 percent in 2013, CBO estimates (see Figure 3-1).