Ben Cohen on Budget Allocation

"Look at this. This is a chart of the discretionary federal budget. It’s the amount of money Congress has each year to allocate to different departments.
So the big red block at the top that gets more than half—that’s the Pentagon. These small slices are things like USAID, the Department of Education, the Department of Health, Community Development, whatever the country does.

Martin Luther King gave this speech and talked about the Pentagon as a huge demonic suction tube.
A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

I think that’s when they killed him—when he said that. The stuff about race was okay, it wasn’t a problem.
But that... That was the line he crossed... It’s true. That was the end of his...

He was killed exactly one year after giving that speech. One exact year. Exactly one year later."

The discretionary federal budget in the United States is the portion of national spending that Congress approves each year and can adjust according to political priorities. Unlike mandatory spending (such as Social Security or Medicare), this budget covers areas like defense, education, health, and international programs.

An overwhelming portion of this budget—more than half—is allocated to the Department of Defense, meaning the Pentagon. This includes military expenses, overseas operations, base maintenance, weapons, and technology. Meanwhile, departments like Education, Health, Housing, or International Development receive much smaller shares. This disproportion has been criticized, especially by those who argue that prioritizing military spending over social welfare contributes to the country's internal decline and reflects a policy focused on power rather than the people.