President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for FY 2018 is set to impact a lot of people negatively — including many people who voted to put him in office. The proposal has drawn criticism even from members of Trump’s own party.
The plan, “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again,” calls for a significantly higher military budget, with a $54 billion increase in defense spending. The Departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs are the only ones with increased budgets.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Fact Sheet released in April 2016, the United States spends significantly more than any other nation on military expenditures. In 2015 the U.S. spent $596 billion. This is more than the next seven nations — China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, France and Japan — combined.
