Did you know where and how the federal government spends our tax dollars? This is a breakdown of last year's budget  expenses with the dollar amount and percentage of actual budget:

DEFENSE: $618 Billion or 15%

DISCRETIONARY PROGRAMS- Examples would be education, transportation, VA health, law enforcement, low income housing, agriculture, space and science: $656 Billion or 15.9%

SOCIAL SECURITY: $984 Billion or 23.8%

MEDICARE: $583 Billion or 14.1%

OTHER MANDATORY PROGRAMS-Examples would be military retirement, VA disability and pensions, SNAP, health care for children and retirees, assistance for needy families:$537 billion or 13%

NET INTEREST-What the government pays to bond holders-$315 billion or 7.6%

The 2018 deficit was $779 billion. That amount is expected to increase to $1 trillion for 2019.