Budget Matters Blog

Because the Social Security program is an earned benefit programs – future beneficiaries pay into the system while they are members of the work force – it is often assumed that your benefits are based on your contributions to the program. In this model, Social Security would effectively operate like a type of government run savings plan.But that’s not the case. Social Security works as a pay-as-you-go system, which means that current workers’ contributions to the Social Security program are used to pay benefits to current retirees. Rather than functioning as a retirement savings account, Social Security actually shifts wealth ...

During Pie Week, we’ve explored three types of federal spending pies: total, mandatory, and discretionary. Judging from your comments on our Facebook page, you have strong opinions about the numbers on these charts.

To wrap up the week, we think it’s important to see the spending charts next to one another and understand the relationships between them. Below is an experimental way to make these charts more interactive. Just hover over the pie slices and click them to see the detailed data.

Educational? Confusing? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

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For the second day of Pie Week, we present the mandatory spending pie. Mandatory spending is part of total federal spending, which we explored in yesterday's total federal spending pie.

Spending for mandatory programs is not determined by lawmakers during their yearly process for passing the federal budget. Instead, mandatory programs like food stamps and Medicare have certain eligibility criteria; anyone who meets them receives benefits from the program. Want to know more about mandatory spending? Check out Federal Budget 101. And visit the Budget Matters blog again tomorrow, when we'll have another pie for your enjoyment.

Chairman Ryan’s deep cuts would only achieve modest deficit reductions in 2012The budget proposal released by Rep. Paul Ryan’s this week includes a slew of cuts to “non-security” discretionary programs in 2012.  The deepest cuts are illustrated below.   Rep. Ryan proposes we spend less than half as much as President Obama proposed on both Transportation and International Affairs.   He would spend 46% less than the President on Energy.  (For a full comparison of President Obama’s and Rep. Ryan’s 2012 budget proposals see NPP’s factsheet.)However, these deep cuts would only have modest impacts on the ...