Even more

$859 billion to DoD

$339 billion Veterans benefits

Then when we look at the $952 billion in interest, a good chunk of that is due to past military spending.

Plus even more - tens of billions of the military nuclear budget is done via the DoE, not the DoD in the budget line.

There's always a hand waving that previous debts accumulated like veteran's benefits and military related debt interest are not military spending, but they obviously are.

People need to ditch their 1990s talking points. US military expenditures are near historic lows: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?locat.... We currently spend 3.4% of GDP, which is less than the new NATO target of 3.5%.

China and Russia, meanwhile, spend about $450 billion. And you know they get a lot more for their dollar than we do.

No you forgot the wasted spending on Social Security, Medicaid, and other subsidies! See, other people can throw in snide remarks too.

There's room to debate military spending, but if you view the world as a dangerous place and that the US should not become isolationist, we have to spend the money and have equipment ready and capable whether that's in Europe or in Asia. Alternatively we can disband much of the military, stop paying for this stuff, withdraw from NATO, remove overseas bases in countries like Japan and South Korea, and leave the world to deal with its own problems.

> you forgot the $800 billion for the military!

I agree but i wouldn't be that upset if that money was spent on soldier's pay and buying things or R/D from US companies built in the United States while employing US citizens. To me, that's a decent tax/spend jobs program. Now, military money flowing overseas and propping up some other economy? There could be valid reasons but that deserves to go under a microscope.

1.5 trillion next year!