10-14-2020, 10:58 AM
(10-14-2020, 10:16 AM)Nately120 Wrote: The Aussies spend more on welfare than defense? You guys must get invaded constantly!
This is where the data visualization can be massaged in a way to make things look different than reality. When looking at military spending in the US, if you compare it to the overall federal budget for FY2021, military spending is ~$636 billion compared to an overall budget of ~$4.829 trillion. However, the mandatory expenditures (SS, Medicare, Medicaid) come in around $2.966 trillion, with the largest chunk, SS, being paid entirely by payroll taxes, and some of Medicare and all of Medicaid coming from the general fund. Those are entitlement programs that must be paid out (hence the term "entitlement").
Discretionary spending is about $1.485 trillion, which is there the DoD figure of $636 billion comes in. It is the single largest item on the discretionary budget, and if you add to it the VA with another $105 billion, you can see how much of the budget that is actually messed around with by the government goes to the military.
This is all based on the budget sent to Congress in February, mind you, and doesn't reflect actual numbers.
"A great democracy has got to be progressive, or it will soon cease to be either great or a democracy..." - TR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
"The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." - FDR
