Details on the Federal Budget Pie Chart
Each year War Resisters League analyzes federal funds outlays as presented in detailed tables in “Analytical Perspectives” of the Budget of the United States Government. Our analysis is based on federal funds, which do not include trust funds — such as Social Security — that are raised separately from income taxes for specific purposes. What you pay (or don’t pay) by April 15, 2009, goes to the federal funds portion of the budget.
The pie chart here highlights 51% average annual military spending based on our research over 20 years. The Obama administration is releasing the 2010 budget in late March and the new analysis will be posted on our website in April 2009. Over the summer Congress will debate the budget details and is mandated to pass a final budget by October 1, 2009.
While we do not expect the military percentage to change much, Obama’s 2010 budget presentation should include funding for the bank bailout, takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the stimulus package. The Bush administration (with little Congressional opposition) refused to budget for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the wider war on terror, intentionally hiding the full monetary costs of their criminal activities. We must demand that all future administration present a more complete and honest budget than we have seen in recent years.
See www.warresisters.org/federalpiechart for an analysis of the 2010 budget after it is released in March. There are also more details on our methodology and the assumptions behind it.
"The largest spending bill in history is going to turn out to be the war in Iraq... I don't understand why... building a road, building a school, helping somebody get health care, that's wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq... is going to cost us over $1 trillion before we're through..."Congressman Barney Frank
“This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” ABC, 2/1/09
2001 to 2008: Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, armscontrolcenter.org. 2009: $69B was approved in June 2008; $70B is expected to be requested and approved early in 2009. WRL has chosen to hold the funding at 2008 levels for 2009-10 because there is no clarity on troops withdrawals from Iraq, the build-up in Afghanistan, or the ability to make solid estimates from incomplete DoD figures. A key source is the Congressional Research Service report to Congress, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” updated October 15, 2008, by Amy Belasco.