mandatory spending include interest on the national debt and
Expenditures in the United States federal budget The United States federal budget consists of mandatory expenditures (which include entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security), discretionary spending for defense, Cabinet Departments (e.g., United States Department of Justice) and agencies (e.g., Securities & Exchange Commission), and interest payments on debt.
National debt of the United States As is apparent from the chart, a little less than half of the total national debt is owed to the "Federal Reserve and intragovernmental holdings". The foreign and international holders of the debt are also put together from the notes, bills, and bonds sections. To the right is a chart for the data as of June 2008: