Defense Budget 101 - How much are we really spending?

Posted on: Feb. 7th, 2006 || Source: slate.com | E-mail Article | Print Article

The new military budget-released Monday by the White House and the Pentagon-has even more smoke, mirrors, and rabbit-stuffed sleeves than usual.

Let us first dispel the official claim, blithely recited by most news reports, that this budget amounts to $439.3 billion—in itself a staggering sum, but by any proper measure, it really totals $513 billion, and, if looked at from a certain angle, it comes to over $580 billion.

You have to go digging through various portals and annexes to find most of this hidden money, but once you push the right doors, the stash is all sitting there in plain view.

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