All sorts of great questions come in on our Facebook page. One question we hear a lot is, How much of the federal budget actually goes to the military? In some charts, you see that military is more than half the budget. But in others, you see that it's much less than that. This week at National Priorities Project we're talking about all different kinds of budget pies, so this is our chance: Let's settle this once and for all.

Out of the total federal budget, the military accounts for around 18 percent.

But then there's ...

As the Pentagon scrambles to find ways to save money, the Defense Department has included in its fiscal year 2013 budget request a bombshell – increasing beneficiary contributions to its health care programs.The Defense Department’s health care network – known as TRICARE – provides a range of benefit plans to active duty military personnel, their dependents and survivors and military retirees. And like private health insurance programs, the costs of these benefits have skyrocketed in recent years, creating a significant financial burden for the military.

According to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "health care costs are eating the Defense Department alive ...

Nancy Albert, of San Juan, Puerto Rico asks how much do we spend on the CIA, and where in the budget would you find that money?The short answer is, we don't know. Now here's the longer answer, which includes what we do know about what the government spends on intelligence, including the Central Intelligence Agency.U.S. intelligence activities are funded through two budget pots – the National Intelligence Program (NIP) and the Military Intelligence Program (MIP).NIP "topline" funding (that is, the total amount spent) has been a matter of public record since 2007. Prior to that ...

On February 14, 2012 the Obama Administration released its proposed Fiscal Year 2013 budget for the federal government. The request includes $525.4 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD) in Fiscal Year 2013, which begins on October 1, 2012. Adjusted for inflation, this is 2.6 percent below FY2012 levels, the first real decrease in the Pentagon's annual "base" budget in over a decade.The Defense Department plans to reduce spending by a total of $259 billion over five years and $487 billion over ten years. These figures do not include funding for the nuclear weapons activities of ...

Senior research analyst Chris Hellman examines the cost of war up to this point, and looks at what will be changing in the next few years.

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, National Priorities Project has tracked the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recent events including the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq and the winding down of the troop “surge” in Afghanistan have led to the question – what’s going to happen to funding for U.S. operations in these countries?The answer is in three parts:•    Annual funding will be lower than in the past,•    The wars will continue to draw on taxpayer resources even after combat operations in both countries have ended, and•    The funding stream will ...

Last week Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered up a preview of the Pentagon’s Fiscal Year 2013 budget request. The request for FY2013 is projected at $525 billion for the Pentagon’s annual “base” budget, not including war costs and the nuclear weapons-related activities of the Department of Energy.Adjusted for inflation this is a roughly 3 percent decrease from current levels. According to Department of Defense (DoD) projections, the Pentagon’s base budget will drop $28 billion between FY2010 and FY2013, after inflation. That’s a 5 percent decrease over seven years. Meanwhile, the Pentagon hopes to achieve a ...

Senior research analyst Chris Hellman explains changes at the Pentagon.

On January 5 Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Martin E. Dempsey – joined by President Obama in a rare visit to the Pentagon – rolled out the military’s new strategic plan.Secretary Panetta and General Dempsey’s briefing provided a modest amount of detail, but the basics are this: The U.S. military of the future will be smaller, but more agile. Post-Iraq and Afghanistan, the size of the Army and the Marine Corps will be reduced. The military will rely less on deploying troops to forward bases – there will be a ...

President Obama presented the American

Jobs Act of 2011 on September 8th and sent it to Congress

on September 12th. Want to know what it's all about?

Here’s the rundown.

How does it help…

the unemployed? It makes it

illegal for employers to discriminate against unemployed job

applicants because of their unemployed status, and would extend

unemployment benefits, among other provisions.

employers? It cuts the payroll tax

in half for 98 percent of companies. It also gives a $4,000 bonus to

employers who hire the long-term unemployed.

veterans? It creates a “Returning

Heroes” tax credit to employers ...