Top Highlights

• The defense budget is large relative to budgets of other countries and other federal agencies, yet still modest as a fraction of the nation’s economy compared to Cold War-era levels. T
• Together, these figures mean that all government spending in the United States adds up to almost 35% of GDP.
• The Trump administration’s requested and projected national defense proposal for 2020 of some $750 billion in budget authority, and $726 billion in projected outlays, is just over 15% of total federal government spending, 10% of all types of U.S. government spending combined, and about 3.2% of GDP.
• It includes neither diplomacy, nor foreign assistance, nor Department of Homeland Security operations, nor the Department of Veterans Affairs. It does, however, include the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, and the Department of Energy’s nuclear-weapons-related activities.
• The 2018 National Defense Strategy envisions being able to conduct several missions simultaneously:  maintain a strong nuclear deterrent; protect the homeland from attack by missiles, aircraft, terrorists, and others; defeat China or Russia in conventional combat, and deter North Korea while doing so; and sustain momentum in the “war on terror.”

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