Civics Help Requested: Does the Defense Budget also include Veterans Affairs

[Ruby the Liberal]

Or is that completely separate?

What are the basic limits of "Defense"?




Edit to add - I looked up Patty Murray's page and see she is the Veteran's Affairs chair, and am just wondering what overlap there is toward those two goals.

[William769]

1. No.

Department of Defense is the Largest department, Veterans Affairs is the second largest department.

[exboyfil]

4. Not true

HHS is largest department at $893B.
Defense is second at $767B.
Treasury is third at $563B.
Agriculture is fourth at $144B.
Veterans Affaris is fifth at $124B.

Of course Social Security is $815B

[William769]

6. Sorry I used this link for information. I guess I was wrong for doing that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Defense

[exboyfil]

2. A very useful website

http://www.kowaldesign.com/cgi/Budget.pl?estimates=111111

Department of Veterans Affairs has a budget of $124B.
Department of Defense has a budget of $767B.
Department of Energy Nuclear Security $13B.
Department of Energy Envir & Other Defense $8B.
Total Bill - $912B/6.2% of GDP (2010 CIA Factbook $14.66 T U.S. GDP)

Number of adults in U.S. about 235M. Defense spend per adult is $3,880. Ask your conservative friends how much they and their wife paid in Federal taxes last year. Unless it was more than $7761 then they did not even cover the defense spending done on their behalf.

I was stunned by the GDP ratio. I have always seen 4.7%. Including the other programs (which are basically payments for our past wars) ups it to 6.2% of GDP.

[arbusto_baboso]

3. Effectively though, DoE Nuclear Security is part of Defense.

[exboyfil]

5. That is why I included it in my total

I wonder if any reporters actually go to the effort to go through the budget and look at what is really there. I see much lower Defense numbers reported, and Defense should include all aspects related to defense (of course their is some technology development contained in the defense budget that does benefit non-defense - some of it significant).

[Ruby the Liberal]

7. Thanks. I saw some concerns about the amount of money Boeing has donated to her

over the years (they are; however, actually IN her state) and the VA connection was a concern.

I appreciate you digging those numbers up.