In January 1918, some ten months before the end of World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson had written a list of proposed war aims which he called the Fourteen Points..
Today, discretionary spending makes up less than 40 percent of the entire budget. Net Interest-Net interest is the only part of future spending that cannot be reduced by legislative action because it is money that must be paid to service the U.S. debt.
Medicare makes up an additional 23 percent of mandatory spending and 15 percent of the total federal budget. This chart shows where the projected $2.45 trillion in mandatory spending will go in fiscal year 2015. All Federal Spending. Finally, putting together discretionary spending, mandatory spending, and interest on the debt, you can see how the total federal budget is divided into different categories of spending.