CarolC, the figures depend upon the sources, of course.

The percent of the US budget that is devoted to military spending isn't easily tracked, because so much of it is hidden away in nooks and crannies outside DoD.

Here are some interesting figures from Center for Defense Information (pro-military spending think tank):

http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/world-military-spending.cfm

Here is a Quaker/Friends website that provides figures on the 2000 military budget, which it claims totals 41.3% of the federal budget:

http://www.fcnl.org/issues/mil/sup/mil_taxsuprt.htm

There are three main figures to look for when trying to determine anything about the military budget. Present spending (new programs, current bills like military pay, etc); past spending (what we are still paying on for old systems, like the failed Star Wars of the 1980s, decommissioning costs of weapons systems, fleets, etc); and finally discretionary spending, which is the amount that doesn't quite make it into the budget, but still accounts for a substantial amount of military spending. For FY 2004 military budget, this will include the war against Iraq & Homeland Security.

So, the figures usually bantered about now (especially since the huge defense spending increase Bush put in the FY 2003 budget) is actually a summation of the FY 2001 budget, because the figures aren't yet available for 2002 & we haven't finished FY 2003. The budget being considered by Congress & the President right now, is the FY 2004 budget.

So, the general consensus is that present military spending in FY 2001 amounted to approximately 24.2% of the total federal budget. The past military spending accounted for 16.9%, which totals 41.1% of the federal budget, which does not include discretionary spending. I don't know what that was for 2001.

So now, when you hear that the military budget is half the entire federal budget, people are talking about projection estimates for FY 2004, which WILL include the hefty increase in military spending in FY 2003, the discretionary spending for the Iraq war and bringing Homeland Security online (which include discretionary spending in both FY 2003 and FY 2004), and the discretionary spending amounts which remain unknown for FY 2004.