Kaotic, do you really care to know nuances of discretionary spending? If you insist...

http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/Discretionary.htm

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/08/paul-ryans-budget-games.html
Quote:
all of the government’s discretionary spending (including the defense budget) would account for less than four per cent of G.D.P. Since defense spending in the postwar era has never been less than three per cent of G.D.P., and since Romney has said during the campaign that he doesn’t want defense spending to be below four per cent of G.D.P., this means that the only way for Ryan’s numbers to work would be to effectively eliminate nearly all non-defense discretionary spending, including not just much of the social safety net but infrastructure spending, R. & D. investment, federal support for education, air-traffic control, regulatory and public safety spending, and so on.


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