mandatory spending
Legally required outlays
Mandatory spending is government expenditure required by existing law, as opposed to discretionary spending that Congress allocates annually.
Programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid fall into this category—benefits flow automatically to those who qualify without new appropriations.
Mandatory spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of the federal budget.
Reducing it requires changing the underlying statutes, making it politically difficult to cut.
- federal budgetGovernment's yearly financial plan
- automatic pilotSelf-guiding navigation system
- Social SecurityFederal old-age insurance program
- MedicareFederal senior health program
- interest paymentsMoney owed for borrowing
veterans' benefits · disability insurance · SNAP · statutory requirements · unemployment insurance · income redistribution · deficit financing · treasury bonds · debt ceilings · national debt · pension plans · inflation rates · housing assistance · GDP growth · trust funds · payroll taxes · cost of living adjustments · credit ratings
- budgetsbudget, budgets, annual budget, capital budget, cash budget
- federal budgetfederal budget, appropriations, deficit, national budget, surplus
- fiscal policybudget deficit, national budget, budget surplus, budget deficits, federal budget
- government spendingfederal budget, expenditures, allocations, federal aid, state aid
- public budgetbudget bill, budget deficit, budget surplus, budget vote, budget debate
- state budgetsappropriations, allocations, general fund, operating budget, capital budget
mandatory spendingdiscretionary spending
Non-obligatory personal expenditures
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