“When you ask people what sort of budget they’d like, and even when you ask them what they think the budget is, you get enormous pie slices for environmental protection and education. Here, in stark contrast, our so-called representatives are contemplating giving us 3.47% for education…”
By: David Swanson, World BEYOND War | August 18, 2026 worldbeyondwar.org
The discretionary budget for the U.S. government next year as proposed by Trump is depicted by the Washington Examiner in the above pie chart. It has passed the House and might pass the Senate. As long as half of Congress Members see their job as boot licking and the other half see their job as tweaking, these annual proposals are good indications of each fresh hell into which we are careening.
This pie chart includes 65.77% of federal discretionary spending for War, plus 6.57% for a woefully inadequate job of addressing the suffering of people sent into war (Veterans Affairs), 2.86% for so-called “Homeland Security” (in case you wanted to bring the wars closer), 1.61% for a State Department that is wholly subservient to the Pentagon (“State and International Program”), and 0.85% for weaponizing the solar system (NASA).
After that 77.66% of the money Congress will spend next year has been spent, what’s left?