What is discretionary spending? Well, in theory, it's spending that Congress should be able raise and lower with relatively greater ease than the other kind of spending, called mandatory spending. Discretionary programs' importance tends to change. Defense spending, for example, is discretionary. During war, we need to spend a great deal on defense; during peace, much less. However, many programs that receive discretionary funding don't need such flexibility. Funding for veteran's health care is one example. It's always a priority to give veterans health care. Same could go for IRS funding, an argument that's been articulated by Nina Olson, the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate. We should always collect as much revenue as the tax code allows. But IRS funding and funding for veteran's health care are a part of the annual discretionary budget process. That means that their funding must be weighed against other funding priorities and the perceived importance of reducing the budget deficit. So often times, their budgets are much lower than ideal and performance suffers. Low budgets, for example, have put pressure on IRS to privatize tax collection, which is costly, dangerous and ineffective. And inadequate budgets gave rise to the poor conditions at Walter Reed Hospital uncovered last year. Perhaps many other types of discretionary funding shouldn't be subject to the discretionary budget cap. And alternatively, we could get rid of the cap altogether, so there'd be much less need to make trade-offs between discretionary programs. But exempting certain programs from the discretionary budget process, or making some discretionary funding mandatory, might be a good half-way compromise.