Federal Budget and Military Spending

www.nationalpriorities.org

Nationpeacepriorities.com which was founded by Greg Spletter a Nobel Peace prize winner is an organization that breaks down government spending. The website inform its visitors about how the government spends the tax payers money and on exactly what they spend it on. After one analyzes the US discretionary spending it becomes clear that we spend too much on the military and should be used elsewhere.

 Federal Spending is broken down into three categories, Mandatory spending, Discretionary spending, and Interest on federal debt. The total amount of money congress was granted to spend on these three categories was $3.8 trillion in 2015. Military spending falls into Discretionary spending. The government spends majority of the Discretionary budget on the military. The government spent $598.49 Billion on the military in 2015 which was 54% of the discretionary budget for that year. 


The total amount of  money congress spent on the military in 2015 was $598.49 Billion. This is 54% of the discretionary spending budget and ⅙ of the total federal budget. Some of this money however can be used on remodeling roads, building schools, hospitals, or investing in renewable energy sources.

Future research questions: What would be the benefits of spending more money at home instead of on the military? How do other countries spend their money? What are the benefits of spending the military?