Budget Matters Blog

Category: Military & Security


A Decade After 9/11: The Dollars and Sense of War

10 numbers you need to know: $1.26 Trillion – Total amount appropriated by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of Fiscal Year 2011 (September 30, 2011) – $797.3 billion for Iraq and $459.8 billion for Afghanistan. $7.6 Trillion – The total amount spent on “security” ...

White House Holds State Calls About Budget Deal

The White House Office of Public Engagement has scheduled a series of ten state calls (see list and specific invitation below). Note there are two calls today (Wednesday) for folks in California and Colorado and the rest through the end of this week. You are welcome to forward this invitation ...

How Safe Are You? What Almost $8 Trillion in National Security Spending Bought You

NOTE: This article originally appeared on TomDispatch.com.The killing of Osama Bin Laden did not put cuts in national security spending on the table, but the debt-ceiling debate finally did. And mild as those projected cuts might have been, last week newly minted Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta was already digging ...

Mainers Want Their Federal Income Taxes Spent on Education, Health Care

In the midst of Congressional debates about debt, budget cuts, and tax increases, a “penny poll” was held in every Maine county asking participants, “How would you like your federal tax dollars spent?” Mainers Larry Dansinger and Lisa Savage were among the leading coordinators of this effort.Education, health care, and ...

New Data: Defense Department Personnel

A new indicator is now available in the Federal Priorities Database: Department of Defense Personnel: Number of civilian, military, and reserve national guard personnel employed by the Department of Defense.


New Data: Defense Procurement Contracts

We've added another federal expenditure to the Federal Priorities Database: Department of Defense Procurement Contracts: amount of procurement contracts awarded by the Department of Defense (by vendor location).

Field Notes: Creating Change in Washington

Earlier this week I went to Washington, D.C. for the international conference of RESULTS, a nonpartisan organization working to end hunger and poverty by empowering individuals to exercise their personal and political power. The goal of RESULTS is captured in this quote by former Oregon Republican Senator Mark Hatfield:“We stand ...

“Mr. Gates, Please Bring Your Checkbook”

That’s the message that U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates got from President Hamid Karzai when he visited Afghanistan in December 2009. At that time, President Karzai told Sec. Gates that the Afghan government would not be able to shoulder the costs of the nation’s new security forces – both national ...

U.S. Security Spending Since 9/11

Last week NPP published "U.S. Security Spending Since 9/11," an analysis of total federal spending on defense and homeland security since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The key findings of the report were:The United States has spent more than $7.6 trillion on defense and homeland security since the ...

What the heck does the federal budget have to do with Michigan?

I had the real privilege of speaking at the Michigan Forum on Jobs and Human Needs on Saturday, March 6, 2001. Sponsored by a great mix of labor, faith, peace and student groups, the event was held in Lansing, Michigan, the state's capital, which is located within Ingham County. Many ...