Discretionary Federal Spending 2016: Chart

The US is the top country in terms of defense spending. None of the other countries in the world spend as much on military as the US does. According to a report by National Priorities Project, in 2016 more than half of the discretionary federal spending was spent on military. To put it another way, 53% or over $618.0 billion of the discretionary budget of $1.16 Trillion went to defense.

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Source: The Militarized Budget 2017, National Priorities Project

Because more than of the spending is diverted to building weapons and other military stuff, other parts of the economy get smaller funding. For example, food and agriculture got 1%, health got 6% and transportation received 2%. High defense spending gives the country the world’s most powerful military. But lack of adequate spending in other areas leads to poor quality infrastructure, health, education, housing, etc. For example, transportation industry is a mess from roads to railroads to airports with some airports looking like third-world countries.

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