What with all the talk about trimming spending at both the federal and state levels, I thought this chart from Ezra Klein’s blog frames the discussion nicely. It shows how the federal government spends its money:
As Klein puts it, America is an insurance conglomerate with a standing army. Together, entitlements and defense spending make up two-thirds of federal spending. We could zero out the budgets for Americorps, Title X family planning funds, public radio and television, Pell grants, the National Institutes for Health, and a hundred other programs without making a significant dent in our total debt load. The real money is found in the health care programs that serve me, my parents, and millions of other people, not to mention a military force that is still postured to defeat an enemy that no longer exists. Everything else is chump change.
Unfortunately, our political leadership still refuses to even acknowledge the crux of our spending problem out of fear that voters will punish anyone who raises the possibility of cutting popular entitlements. That may be true. But as someone who benefits from one of those entitlements (Medicaid), I’d rather have the discussion now rather than wait until a panicked Congress is forced to slash spending in the midst of a financial crisis.
I hear you, Mark!