In fiscal year 2015, Pentagon and related spending will total $598 billion, accounting for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending. That's roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined.
Trump's FY 2027 Pentagon budget request includes $95 billion for munitions, which - if passed - would be 20% more than the U.S. Department of Education’s entire 2026 discretionary budget. Each of the missiles the Department of War wants to produce cost millions of taxpayer dollars. To break down the enormity of these per-unit costs, we provide examples of social programs that could be funded for the price of a single PrSM, Tomahawk, and THAAD missile, sourced from the National Priorities Project’s trade-off calculator.
The president’s budget request throws the vast wealth of this country in the hands of weapons contractors while providing almost nothing for struggling Americans. It requests a $445 billion, or 42 percent, increase for war, bringing the total war budget to an unprecedented $1.5 trillion.
Providing more money to the Pentagon at this time will prolong the war and continue to underfund programs that Americans need and deserve. With so many potential better uses for these funds, there is no excuse for their approval.
This analysis shows each congressional district’s estimated contribution to a new expenditure of $73 billion for war and weapons, alongside how many people in that district could receive Medicaid or SNAP for the same amount of money.
