this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
110 points (85.3% liked)

conservative

1048 readers
451 users here now

A community to discuss conservative politics and views.

Rules:

  1. No racism or bigotry.

  2. Be civil: disagreements happen, but that doesn't provide the right to personally insult others.

  3. No spam posting.

  4. Submission headline should match the article title (don't cherry-pick information from the title to fit your agenda).

  5. Shitposts and memes are allowed until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.

  6. No trolling.

founded 2 years ago
110
Chart (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by cm0002@lemmy.world to c/conservative@lemmy.world
 

ETA:

For accuracy, the chart is old (2014) and references discretionary spending instead of mandatory which is where programs like SNAP (Food Stamps) generally fall

However, even accounting for all that properly, at the time of the meme, food stamps would have still been just 2% of the federal budget. Thus the spirit of the meme is still good.

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/36521

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Is the chart accurate? Do we have a source?

I ask because I don't see where social security would fit at all, and I suspect that Medicare/Medicaid would be a larger portion than the 5% listed for health.

[–] Buelldozer 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Is the chart accurate?

No. It's outdated, misleading and inaccurate.

Most people don't realize it but in FY2024 the interest payments on our national debt exceeded the entire military budget.

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-the-u-s-governments-2024-fiscal-year/

If you don't like that source then here's the treasury department itself: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/

[–] BombOmOm@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, it's blatantly dishonest for OP's chart to be labeled "Federal Spending" when it doesn't include the majority of federal spending categories. Particularly when the goal is for the reader to point at the largest spending category, despite the chart not including the largest spending categories.

[–] cm0002@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes and no, a reverse image search pulled up this answer on stack exchange https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/36521

It's old, and only represents discretionary spending vs mandatory (which is where food stamps/SS/Medi* would be) but according to them for food stamps specifically it would still only be about 2% of the federal budget

[–] PapaSkwat@lemy.lol 5 points 1 day ago

Can you update the text part of the post with these details?

[–] CoCo_Goldstein@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

I believe food stamps are a subset of the US Department of Agriculture spending.

[–] Tyrangle@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Social security and Medicare are considered mandatory spending. The chart above is presumably showing discretionary spending, which is a subset of the overall budget. I can't speak to it's accuracy beyond that.

[–] FuzzChef@feddit.org 7 points 1 day ago

According to the comments of an earlier post of the same picture it is not: https://lemmy.world/post/25845711