In recent years, national defense accounts for a little under half of all federal discretionary spending , typically around 40–50% , depending on the fiscal year.

What “discretionary spending” means

Discretionary spending is the part of the federal budget that Congress sets each year through appropriations, as opposed to “mandatory” spending like Social Security or Medicare.

It covers things like defense, education, transportation, law enforcement, and many domestic programs.

How much goes to defense?

Recent data show that defense is the largest single slice of discretionary spending:

  • In fiscal year 2023 , discretionary spending totaled about $1.7 trillion , of which roughly $806 billion went to defense.
  • That means defense made up about 47% of total discretionary spending that year.

Over time, defense has often hovered near “about half” of discretionary spending , even though it is a much smaller share of the overall federal budget once mandatory programs and interest are included.

Quick snapshot in table form

Category| Approx. share of discretionary spending (recent years)
---|---
National defense| ~45–50% 57
Non‑defense discretionary| ~50–55% (education, infrastructure, agencies, etc.) 57

In short: roughly half of discretionary spending goes toward national defense , with the other half funding everything else Congress appropriates annually.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.