Fun With Math: Budget $$$

The Center for American Progress has launched an interactive pie chart that lets users zoom in to see which programs are considered discretionary versus mandatory in the annual federal budget. President Obama's budget proposes a three-year governmentwide freeze on nonsecurity discretionary spending to save $250 billion over the next decade.

Many people who are not policy wonks do not have a sense of how many activities fall under the discretionary category. Now, the center, which has close ties to the White House, is trying to teach the public which services would be affected. The data is based on 2010 budget authority figures provided by the Office of Management and Budget. As you can see - or not see - the dollar amount that is frozen for general government funding is teeny tiny. By accident, I clicked on the "community and regional development" section the first time I tried the tool because the government sliver was too narrow for my unwieldy mouse.

Here's the point of this chart, according to the center:

There has been a lot of talk recently about non-defense discretionary spending. But what is nondefense discretionary spending? What does it do? How much of the budget really goes to this category? And would it really be so easy to cut back? Our new interactive tool can help you answer these questions.

Click on the slices of the federal budget pie to see where nondefense discretionary dollars actually go. At the finest level of detail, you can click to read brief descriptions of what these programs really do. The percentages indicate the share of total federal funding that goes to that particular slice. Take a look around and decide for yourself if slashing non-defense discretionary spending is really as painless as some say it is. You might be surprised at what you find.