From Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget

Confused about the federal budget? Don't worry, so are your congressmen and congresswomen.

Here's a guide from the National Priorities Project that explains the process and zooms in on some of the political wrangling. Security Spending Primer: Getting Smart About The Pentagon Budget includes the obligatory charts, so you're welcome to stage a pie fight when you're done reading.

The above chart breaks down the "discretionary" budget, the stuff that Congress and the White House wrangle over. As the NPP's summary of its report notes: "Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the Obama Administration is not cutting defense. In fact, the Pentagon budget is projected to grow 25 percent over the next decade."

Oh, you say, it's those nasty Iraq/Afghan wars, right? Wrong. "Even without including current war allocations, U.S. military spending is at its highest level since World War II," the NPP report says. "This takes into account the war-time budgets of Vietnam and Korea."