Budgets are more than just lines of numbers; they are moral documents that tell individuals, organizations and nations what they truly value. More than mere words or platitudes, budgets are a reflection of the ways in which we do--or don't--"put our money where our mouth is."

There is probably no more daunting document than the U.S. Federal budget. But that in no way diminishes the need for each of us to do our best to know about it and understand it.  

The Federal budget is a public document. You can review it at the Government Printing Office's website.  This is the source of all the data that we have used to communicate about the budget. Primarily, we've used the Detailed Functional Tables FY2009, and specifically Table 25–14 -- Current Services Outlays by Function, Category, and Program.

As any accountant or economist will tell you, there are countless ways to analyze the data in budgets. We at The Peace Alliance are not economic experts, and so we've done our best to simply present the numbers as we see them--no funny business, no fancy math. We encourage you to do your own research and analysis, and to read the analysis of other peace advocacy organizations.

Federal Budget FY2009 Proposed
Discretionary Spending Only

Source: Budget of the United States Government: Detailed Functional Tables Fiscal Year 2009, Table 25–14. Current Services Outlays by Function, Category, and Program. *Other includes Agriculture, Energy, Social Security, Medicare, Commerce & Housing, Community & Regional Development, & General Government, all of which represent 2% or less of  discretionary spending. Excludes -$8B in undistributed offsetting receipts. **Department of Peace included for illustrative purposes only.

You can download a PDF of the above chart here  Budget_FY2009_TPA 82.78 Kb. 

Other Resources

These organizations provide more indepth analysis and tools of the budget. You'll find their numbers may not always match ours because sometimes we use different analysis methods, but the general message is still extremely useful and powerful.

• Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)'s Federal Budget Project
  provides find additional analysis and resources
• The National Priorities Project provides county- and city-specific calculations of tax expenditures, an Interactive Tax Chart to show just how your personal tax dollars were spent, and an analysis of trade-offs, giving examples of what other programs could have been funded for the cost of various military programs.