June 11, 2021

President Biden's discretionary budget request totals $1.5 trillion, up slightly from recent years. Notably, the president wants to increase the budget for non-military spending, especially for education.

But the budget request also increases the Pentagon budget, even over the historically high levels reached by the last administration. The president's request calls for $753 billion for the Pentagon and nuclear weapons, plus another $12 billion in foreign military aid.

Even more remarkable, the proposed increase comes at a time when the U.S. is preparing to finally withdraw all troops from Afghanistan before the 20th anniversary of that war. That should result in some savings, since the U.S. has spent somewhere between $20 billion and $50 billion per year in recent years in Afghanistan.