Publication

This paper finds that, when given information about the size of the US national defense budget from five different perspectives, in three of the five cases a majority of respondents said that the size of the defense budget was more than they expected, and in two cases that it was roughly in line with expectations; in no case did a majority say it was less than expectations. When the national defense budget was presented in comparison to other items in the discretionary budget, to historical defense spending levels in constant dollars, and to the defense spending of potential enemies and allies, majorities said defense was larger than they had expected. The amount of national defense spending was more consistent with expectations when presented in comparison to Social Security and Medicare, and in terms of historical trends as a percentage of GDP.