What's Really in the U.S. Military Budget?

Much more than the oft-cited $515.4 billion.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Monday, Feb. 4, 2008, at 6:51 PM ET

It's time for our annual game: How much is really in the U.S. military budget?

As usual, it's about $200 billion more than most news stories are reporting. For the proposed fiscal year 2009 budget, which President Bush released today, the real size is not, as many news stories have reported, $515.4 billion—itself a staggering sum—but, rather, $713.1 billion.