"David Hall" wrote in message
...

Yes, I understand that the Constitution ALLOWS the gov't to spend money on
certain activities. However, without getting into what is allowed vs. what
is
not allowed, I want to know what is MANDATORY. The prior poster said that
50%+
of federal spending was mandatory and only 19% discreationary.

I believe the thing that makes it mandatory is that Congress
has passed a law creating a program and funded it at a certain
level. Thus, the administration cannot simply chose not to
spend the money.

For example, they can decide to _ask_ for money to go to
Mars in the budget they submit to Congress but they cannot
decide to stop paying Social Security to folks who are getting
under laws passed by Congress. Make sense?

Dennis Vogel