Art courtesy of Nonviolent Medicaid Army

Donald Trump has suggested a $1.5 trillion war budget. And key Republicans in Congress have endorsed the idea. The war budget has just passed $1 trillion for the first time since World War II.

That’s already far more than we should be spending on war and weapons. But the idea that we would grant $1.5 trillion to a president who just invaded a sovereign nation and has sent troops to occupy peaceful U.S. cities is unthinkable. 

These are massive sums of money, and we need them to help struggling people. 

Here are eleven critical government programs that together cost $1,500,000,000,000 in FY2025.

1. Medicaid   $635,816,000,000 

Medicaid provides health insurance for 70 million people in this country - that’s one in five Americans. The federal government covers about two-thirds of the cost of Medicaid, while states pick up the rest. Trump’s Big Bad Bill introduced cuts to Medicaid that could affect millions of people if we don’t reverse them.

2. Child Tax Credit   $214,940,000,000 

The Child Tax Credit is one of the most successful federal programs helping Americans get by. 

In 2024, the credit lifted 4.1 million people ― including 2.4 million children ― above the poverty line. The credit can reduce taxes owed, but it also gives the lowest-income families some money back – more than $214 billion to support the poorest families in FY 2025.

3. SNAP/ food stamps   $123,394,000,000 

Forty million Americans rely on food stamps to feed themselves and their families. At a time when half of Americans say they’re struggling to get by, we can thank past lawmakers who had the wisdom to create safety net programs like food stamps. Of course, Trump’s Big Bad Bill also cut SNAP, which will likely result in millions losing this essential safety net. 

4. Department of Education   $278,488,000,000 

The Department of Education is responsible for sending federal funds to local school districts for low-income students and students with disabilities, administering federal student loans and grants for higher education, and protecting students’ civil rights. Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the department in early 2025, a move that has been challenged in court.

5. Highways   $70,149,000,000 

The U.S. is in desperate need of infrastructure investment, scoring a C grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers for infrastructure in 2025. The ASCE gave America’s roads a D+ grade, while transit earned a D, the lowest grade of all.

6. National Institutes of Health   $49,790,000,000 

Another early target of the Trump administration, the National Institutes of Health provides public funding for medical research. The NIH funds basic and applied research on heart disease, cancer, the human genome, and more. As Harvard Medical School Professor David Jones put it, “If you had to choose between medicine in 1935 and today, the answer is obvious. That progress didn’t just happen, it was built on decades of public funding.”

7. School lunch and breakfast   $32,421,000,000 

Nearly 30 million children participated in the National School Lunch program in the 2023-2024 school year, and most of those received a free or reduced-price lunch. The school lunch program is the nation’s second-largest food and nutrition program, behind SNAP. School breakfast served about 15 million children.

8.  Federal Emergency Management Agency   $31,934,000,000 

It’s no secret that climate change is bringing us worse extreme weather events, from wildfires and storms to floods and heat waves. FEMA is the federal government’s main answer to helping people survive and recover from these events. A strong majority of Americans - 64 percent - say it’s a good thing for the government to help people rebuild after extreme weather events. Trump has called for the elimination of FEMA, saying budget-strapped states should take on disaster responsibilities, and major staffing cuts appear to be imminent.

9. Federal Aviation Administration   $26,801,000,000 

If you ever fly, you’ve probably heard about the scary shortage of air traffic controllers. The shortage is a long-term problem. But Trump fired FAA staff just weeks after a deadly plane crash in Washington, DC last year, and threatened air traffic controllers during the record-breaking government shutdown in the fall. And in December, the Justice Department admitted that the deadly January 29, 2025 crash between a commercial passenger plane and a U.S. Army helicopter was the government’s fault.

10. Environmental Protection Agency   $25,180,000,000 

The EPA was founded under President Richard Nixon to safeguard clean air, water and land for Americans. Trump has proposed cutting the agency’s budget by more than half, and Trump’s EPA is now planning to roll back safeguards that would prevent 30,000 deaths and save $275 billion each year they are in effect, according to the AP.

11. Substance use and mental health programs   $8,158,000,000 

Overdose deaths in the U.S. are a preventable tragedy, with 73,000 Americans dying in the 12 months before August 2025. And yet in the early days of 2026, Trump cancelled 2,000 grants to mental health and substance use agencies worth $2 billion, before reversing course after an outcry. To be clear, Venezuela has nothing to do with it. 

TOTAL: $1,​​497,071,000,000

All together, these eleven programs do untold good and cost just shy of $1.5 trillion.

What this country needs is clear: not more money for an immoral, unaccountable war fund, but more money to actually improve lives for people everywhere.

Unless otherwise noted, all budget figures are from the Office of Management and Budget for FY 2025.