Budget Matters Blog

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and DoD comptroller Robert Hale testify before Congress on the Pentagon's request (courtesy of Defense Department)

Last week the Obama Administration released its long-overdue budget request for fiscal year 2014. As part of the request, the administration is seeking $526.6 billion for the Pentagon. This amount does not including funding for wars or the nuclear weapons activities at the Department of Energy.  Here are five things you need to know about the FY2014 Pentagon request:

1) It Doesn’t Contribute Much To Reducing The ...

President Obama in the Oval Office/ White House flickr

Today President Obama released his fiscal 2014 budget proposal, which set a record for arriving two months after the legal deadline of the first Monday in February. Here are the top five things to know about the new budget.

5. The president's budget would reduce Social Security cost-of-living adjustments through "chained CPI."

President Obama became the first Democratic president ever to propose reductions in Social Security benefits by endorsing an alternate measure of inflation – known as chained CPI – to shrink cost-of-living adjustments for retirees. The president plans to save $230 ...

Taxes are due on April 15 – right around the corner – though few Americans know where their taxes actually go. So NPP is launching Tax Day 2013 – a suite of materials, including this chart that shows how Washington spent every one of your income tax dollars in 2012.

And get this:

We'll write you a personalized tax receipt

You can share the average taxpayer's receipt on Facebook and Twitter

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The U.S. Senate Chamber

I recently read an article that compared the gridlock in Washington, D.C., to living next to a railroad track with trains constantly going by – eventually you don’t even notice it. And with the fiscal cliff looming, concerns about the inability of Congress to get anything done are mounting.So it comes as some surprise that last week the Senate voted unanimously – 98 to 0 – to pass the fiscal year 2013 defense authorization bill. Apparently in Washington – or at least in the Senate – when it comes to the Pentagon it’s not gridlock, but ...

During Monday’s presidential debate both candidates discussed their plans for future Pentagon spending. Gov. Romney claimed that President Obama would cut $1 trillion from the Pentagon’s budget, while President Obama questioned how Gov. Romney would fund $2 trillion in new Pentagon spending.So what’s going on here? Let’s look at some numbers.As part of his fiscal year 2013 budget request, President Obama proposed a 2.5 percent decrease in the Pentagon’s annual “base” budget – meaning the military budget excluding war costs and a few other things. This minimal decrease would be the first reduction ...

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2003, National Priorities Project has tracked the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have focused on the tax dollars expended related to the conduct of these wars, and offered comparisons to funding for other government programs to demonstrate the opportunity costs of these expenditures.But wars are not ultimately about dollars, they are about people. As my colleague Mattea Kramer wrote recently, there are good reasons for keeping funding for veterans programs separate from the Pentagon's budget. But it is also true that the support our veterans ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

This data story explores the relationship between Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates.

At the October 26th Super Committee hearing, some lawmakers discussed closing budget deficits by reducing military spending. Critics of this proposal point out that military contracts create work. Others argue that military programs are the least efficient means for creating jobs via government spending. Using the NPP database to get 2010 numbers on per-person Department of Defense procurement spending, we found no correlation between that number and lower state unemployment.

View Department of Defense procurement spending and unemployment rates, as well as notes and sources ...