• zifnab25 [he/him, any]
    ·
    3 years ago

    America’s Defense Budget Is Bigger Than You Think: Each year, Congress approves hundreds of billions of dollars for the US defense budget—but the real number exceeds $1 trillion.

    There are at least 10 separate pots of money dedicated to fighting wars, preparing for yet more wars, and dealing with the consequences of wars already fought. So the next time a president, a general, a secretary of defense, or a hawkish member of Congress insists that the US military is woefully underfunded, think twice. A careful look at US defense expenditures offers a healthy corrective to such wildly inaccurate claims.

    ...

    Base-budget total: $554.1 billion

    War-budget total: $173.8 billion

    Nuclear-budget total: $24.8 billion

    Defense-related-activities total: $9 billion

    Veterans Affairs total: $216 billion

    Homeland Security total: $69.2 billion

    International-affairs total: $51 billion

    Intelligence-budget total: $80 billion

    Defense share of national debt total: $156.3 billion

    Final tally: $1.2542 trillion

    • bananon [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      And this is old too. Base budget is already teetering on $800 billion

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Is that the Base Budget or Base + War? The numbers get a bit blurred.

        Either way, I routinely see these budgets leave out Homeland, Intelligence, Vet Affairs, and associated Debt-financing costs. With those, its been cracking a trillion/year since the Bush Admin.