Budget Matters Blog

Category: Military & Security


Food Stamp Cuts Would Pull Benefits from 5,000 Military Families

When lawmakers in the House passed an agriculture bill last week that effectively eliminated funding for the food stamp program, they were pulling nutrition assistance from millions of at-risk families.


Cost of War Will Tackle New Terrain

For more than a decade National Priorities Project's Cost of War site has been keeping track of real-time federal spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now the Cost of War site is going to tackle new terrain.


How Much Foreign Aid Does the U.S. Give Away?

Back in October I wrote a blog post here about how much the U.S. spends on diplomacy and foreign aid. "Very little," I wrote back then.


Top Five Things To Know About the Pentagon’s Budget Request

Last week the Obama Administration released its long-overdue budget request for fiscal year 2014. As part of the request, the administration is seeking $526.6 billion for the Pentagon. This amount does not including funding for wars or the nuclear weapons activities at the Department of Energy.  Here are five things ...


Top 5 Things to Know About President Obama's 2014 Budget

Today President Obama released his fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which set a record for arriving two months after the legal deadline of the first Monday in February. Here are the top five things to know about the new budget.


See Where Your Taxes Went

Taxes are due on April 15 – right around the corner – though few Americans know where their taxes actually go. So NPP is launching Tax Day 2013 – a suite of materials, including this chart that shows how Washington spent every one of your income tax dollars in 2012.


Is There a Federal Budget for 2013? Detailed Updates

Last week I explained that the federal government is operating on a temporary spending bill called a continuing resolution instead of a real budget for fiscal 2013. That continuing resolution expires on March 27. If lawmakers don't pass new legislation the federal government will shut down on March 28. Here's what's happening.


House Bill Funds Government for Remainder of the Year

The legislation introduced yesterday would extend the current spending bill through the end of the fiscal year – in other words, Congress is proposing to go through this entire fiscal year without passing an actual budget. However, this new legislation did include an actual budget for just two areas of government – Defense and Military Construction-Veterans Affair.


Lack of Leadership in the Senate

I recently read an article that compared the gridlock in Washington, D.C. to living next to a railroad track with trains constantly going by – eventually you don’t even notice it. But with the fiscal cliff looming, concerns about the inability of Congress to get anything done are mounting.So it ...


Pentagon Spending: Obama vs. Romney

During Monday’s presidential debate both candidates discussed their plans for future Pentagon spending. Gov. Romney claimed that President Obama would cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon’s budget, while President Obama questioned how Gov. Romney would fund $2 trillion in new Pentagon spending.So what’s going on here? Let’s look at some ...