National Debt Glossary: Understanding Government Mandatory Spending

Mandatory spending

Spending that’s not dependent on an annual or multiyear bill. Most mandatory spending is associated with such as , and Medicaid. Other forms of mandatory spending — salaries of federal judges, for example — account for a relatively small share of federal spending. Mandatory spending in fiscal 2010 was $1.91 trillion, or about 55 percent of total federal spending. Most of this was for Social Security ($701 billion), Medicare ($520 billion), Medicaid ($273 billion) and unemployment insurance ($159 billion). See also:

National Debt Glossary

Looks up the key terms for understanding America's financial crisis

Frequently Asked Questions National Debt

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