claim: the federal government "can cut all of the non-military discretionary spending and not balance the budget."
author: rand paul
evidence_1: spending cuts will certainly be necessary to bring the federal budget into balance , but it's not realistic to severely cut discretionary and other mandatory spending  to social security and medicare, which are far and away the fastest growing parts  of the budget. in short, it is nearly impossible to put the government on a path to ...
evidence_2: oct 26, 2017 ... the budget would further cut $800 billion from "non-defense discretionary  spending," while leaving the official defense budget alone (more on that in a  second). non-defense discretionary encompasses just about everything the  federal government does outside of the military and entitlement programs like ...
evidence_3: feb 27, 2017 ... the proposal to increase military spending by $54 billion and cut nonmilitary  programs by the same amount was unveiled by white house officials as they ... a  budget with no entitlement cuts and one that does not balance most likely has no  chance of passing the house, and could be rejected by senate ...
evidence_4: may 22, 2017 ... president trump, in budget documents to be released on tuesday, will propose  shrinking spending at non-defense agencies by $1.4 trillion over the next 10 ...  trillion in cuts to both discretionary and mandatory programs—including changes  to federal workforce retirement programs—over the next decade.
evidence_5: may 24, 2017 ... discretionary spending is the part of the u.s. federal budget that congress  appropriates each year. the constitution gave congress the authority to raise  and spend money for the federal government. the budget process begins with  the president's budget. it describes his priorities and what the various ...