A Tale of Two Budgets: War and Peace

SummersTimes: Public Policy Analysis from Scott Summers

The fiscal year 2022 budget request for the Department of Defense is $715 billion. The overall defense budget is projected to be $759.2 billion. (1)

(Incidentally, nuclear weapons are not included in those amounts: they actually are part of the Department of Energy’s FY 2022 budget request of $19.7 billion.) (2)

By contrast, the FY 2022 budget request for the U.S. Institute of Peace is $45 million. (3)

The U.S. Institute of Peace? Yes, there is such an entity. It is a “…national, nonpartisan, independent institute, founded by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical and essential for U.S. and global security.” (4)

So let’s calculate a funding ratio, using these figures: USIP, $45 million. Pentagon (only), $715 billion.

If my math is correct, that means that our peace budget is 0.0063 percent of the Pentagon’s budget. Six one-thousandths of one percent.

What does that say to you about our national priorities?

__________________________________________

(1) Source: https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2638711/the-department-of-defense-releases-the-presidents-fiscal-year-2022-defense-budg/

(2) Source: https://www.energy.gov/nnsa/articles/fy-2022-presidential-budget-nnsa-released

(3) Source: https://www.usip.org/fy-2022-budget-brief

(4) Source: https://www.usip.org/about

If you don't want these updates anymore, please unsubscribe here.

If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here.

Created with Revue by Twitter.