Why do pie charts of the US budget always disagree with each other?

Question

I’ve seen tons of pie charts for the same year where the budget (particularly military and medicare) are all over the place. Why?

In: Economics

Answer 1

The US has two categories of the budget. Mandatory spending, and discretionary spending. Different agencies and programs have different amounts of each with some being totally in one or the other category. Mandatory spending are things that the government is legally required to fund to a set level, discretionary are things that it can vary how much it pays or even if it pays.