Estimate shows 17 percent of government is actually shut down | Fox News

The calculation that 83 percent of the government is still running shows how some parts of the government — unless the country loses its ability to borrow — simply cannot be shut down, even if Congress is unable to agree on a spending bill as happened last week.

The bulk of the federal budget goes toward what is known as “mandatory” programs — entitlements like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. These payments cannot be interrupted in the case of a partial government shutdown.

The government really only has about 35 percent of the federal budget to play with, and most of that is defense spending.

via Estimate shows 17 percent of government is actually shut down | Fox News.