Federal Discretionary Budget Pie

The names on the categories of TrueMajority?s discretionary budget pie are derived from the discretionary budget figures produced by National Priorities Project.[1]

Federal Discretionary Spending

Pentagon ($504 billion)[2], K-12 education ($38 billion)[3], children?s health ($55 billion)[4], world hunger ($16 billion)[5], renewable energy ($2 billion),[6] job training ($6 billion).[7]

Citation for Proposed Pentagon Cuts:

$60 billion (six cookies) each year.[8]

Citations for Military Spending:

Russia ($59 billion), China ($122 billion), Axis of Evil ($10 billion).[9]

U.S. Allies ($282 billion)[10]

Citations for Proposed Spending on Basic Needs:

K-12 EDUCATION?

$10 billion (1 cookie) per year over 12 years to rebuild and modernize America?s public schools.[11]

ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

$10 billion (1 cookie) per year over 10 years to cut America?s dependence on oil in half.[12]

WORLD HUNGER

$15 billion (1 1/2 cookies) per year to feed all of the 6 million kids who die of hunger-related disease across the world.[13]

JOB TRAINING

$5 billion (1/2 cookie) per year to re-train a quarter million workers per year who lose their jobs due to trade policies or trade agreements like NAFTA.[14]

DEFICIT REDUCTION

$5 billion (1/2 cookie) to reduce America?s deficit

MEDICAL RESEARCH AND VETERANS HEALTH

$3 billion for life-saving medical research AND $3 billion for health care for Veterans (1/2 cookie).

CHILDREN?S HEALTH INSURANCE

$9 billion (1 cookie) per year to provide health insurance to all US Kids who lack it.[15]

Citation for Head Start in Oreo Animation

It would cost about $9 billion to fully fund Head Start.[16]

Citation for Childhood Poverty.

13 million American kids live in poverty.[17]

Citation for Number and Costs of Nuclear Weapons:

The U.S. maintains about 10,000 nuclear weapons.[18]

The U.S. would save $14 billion by reducing its nuclear arsenal to no more than 1,000 weapons. The savings increase to $22 billion if Ballistic Missile Defense trimmed to a research program.[19]

Citation that over half of the Discretionary Budget goes to Pentagon

About 54 percent of discretionary spending goes to defense[20]

Citations for bad indicators

U.S. ranks 42^nd in infant mortality[21]

46 million Americans lack health insurance, 9 million of whom are children.[22]

U.S. eighth graders rank 15^th in international math testing and 9^th in international science testing[23]

[2] Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2008, Analytical Perspectives, Supplemental Materials, Table 27-1, p. 1. (This figure includes $481 billion for Department of Defense and $23 billion for nuclear weapons maintained by the Department of Energy but does not include $142 billion for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.) http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/pdf/ap_cd_rom/27_1.pdf. Also see http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/.

[3] Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2008, Analytical Perspectives, Supplemental Materials, Table 27-1,? p. 10. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/pdf/ap_cd_rom/27_1.pdf

[4] Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2007, Analytical Perspectives, Supplemental Materials, Table 27-1, p.12. (The majority of money spent on children?s health comes from Medicaid. Other children?s health expenditures are spread throughout the federal budget.) http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/pdf/ap_cd_rom/27_1.pdf . Also see the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance, http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.BROWSE_SUBAGENCY_RPT.show .

[5] Bread for the World, Budget Charts, personal communication with Kendra Rinas, Bread for the World, Dec. 5, 2005.

[6] Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2008, Appendix, p. 390, http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/pdf/appendix/doe.pdf

[7] Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2008, Analytical Perspectives, Supplemental Materials, Table 27-1, p. 10-11. http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2008/pdf/ap_cd_rom/27_1.pdf

[8] Lawrence J. Korb, ?The Korb Report, A Realistic Defense Budget for America,? 2005.? http://www.sensiblepriorities.org/pdf/korb_report_Finalb.pdf

[9] Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, ?US Military Spending Vs. the World,? March, 2007. http://www.armscontrolcenter.org/

[10] Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation ?US Military Spending Vs. the World,? complied by Christopher Hellman, www.armscontrolcenter.org.

[11]U.S. Government Accountability Office, ?School Facilities: America?s Schools Report Differing Conditions,? 1996, www.gao.gov/archive/1996/he96103.pdf. See also, National Center for Educational Statistics, ?Condition of America?s Public Schools,? (NCES 2000-032), June 2000 http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2000032.

[12] Rocky Mountain Institute, Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profits, Jobs, and Security.
By E. Kyle Datta and Natalie Mims, 2005, http://www.oilendgame.com/.

[13] United Nations Development Program, ?Human Development Report,? 1998, p. 37. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ?The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2005, http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/a0200e/a0200e00.htm. See also Bread for the World, ?Hunger Facts,? http://www.bread.org/learn/hunger-basics/.

[14] This figure is based on the costs of the US Department of Labor to retrain 50,000 workers in 2005 as part of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program. See http://www.doleta.gov/tradeact/.

[15] Childrens Defense Fund, ?Healthy Ties: Ensuring Heath Care for Children Raised by Grandparents and Other Relatives. A Look at Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment in the States,? 2001. www.childrensdefense.org; See also New York Times, Dec. 4, 2005, ?Health Care of Young Widens with States? AID,? p. 1. Also: Children?s Defense Fund, Telephone conversation, Marty Teitelbaum, 4/05.

[16] National Head Start Association, personal correspondence with Ben Allen, Research and Evaluation Director, 6-06.

[17] Childrens Defense Fund, based on 2005 census data. http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=7887

[18] Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, ?Where the Bombs Are, 2006, ? Nov./Dec. 2006, www.thebulletin.org/article_nn.php?art_ofn=nd06norris.

[19] Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, 2005, ?The Korb Report, A Realistic Defense Budget for America,? p. 4-6

[20] Budget of the United States, Fiscal Year 2007, Historical Tables, Table 5.5, p. 117.

[21] Central Intelligence Agency, World Fact Book, 2007 https://cia.gov/cia//publications/factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

[22] New York Times, Dec. 4, 2005, ?Health Care of Young Widens with States? AID,? p. 1

[23] Third International Mathematics and Science Study-Repeat (TIMSS-R), ?Pursuing Excellence: Comparisons of International Eighth-Grade Mathematics and Science Achievement from a U.S. Perspective,? 2003,? Table 3 and Table 9. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2005/2005005.pdf,