EDITORIAL: Promises, promises: The truth about the federal budget

No matter what you say about any business or government, be it local, state or federal, if you want to find out its priorities, follow the money. President Obama submitted his 2017 $4.2 trillion budget to Congress and its easy to see where his administration would like to see the money go, but there are limited options. Congressional leaders have already said the budget is dead on arrival, but that's just talk. Lawmakers are really only arguing over small slivers of the budget pie.

There are two buckets — the total spending bucket and the discretionary spending bucket.

For example, according to National Priorities, military spending sucks up 54 percent of the $1.15 trillion discretionary spending budget. And in this budget "Discretionary spending would decrease in every category except veterans' benefits and labor — including education, science, and international affairs," said National Priorities.

The big bugaboo is mandatory spending — money that has to be spent on Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment and other government obligations, and that's 66 percent of all spending. And let's not forget the 7 percent that goes to pay the interest on the federal debt.

As presidential candidates crisscross the country making all sorts of promises, from free college to building billion dollar walls, we should ask: where will the money come from?

Simple math says you can tax the rich, dismantle some federal agencies and still not be able to pay for all the promises. That leaves Social Security, Medicare and defense. Those are third rail issues. No one has touched them and survived.

This story was originally published February 20, 2016 at 4:50 PM with the headline "EDITORIAL: Promises, promises: The truth about the federal budget ."