Part 7/9:
One key takeaway from the current situation is the difficulty of making effective cuts to the federal budget. A hypothetical scenario where all non-defense federal employees were terminated would only yield a 5% reduction in overall spending. The grim reality is that any effort to control deficits hinges heavily on four critical areas: defense spending, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—all of which comprise over three-quarters of federal expenditures.