> Realistically? National security.

This is absolutely not the case. Sure there are some classified programs but the majority of government spending and money flows should be 100% transparent.

It's not because there is some degree of corruption and those involved wish to evade accountability.

> the majority of government spending and money flows should be 100% transparent.

Agreed. But that wasn't what the parent was suggesting and not what I was arguing against.

National Security is a scam and a racket. It's the goto excuse for racketeering government money whether through war or through financial means which are closely linked. The people who want to know the secrets know the secrets. China, Russia, etc. They all know the secrets. The only people who don't know the secrets are people who are not sophisticated enough to do anything with those secrets and the people who pay for it.

Why can't military spends be in one classified bucket and the rest be open and 100% transparent? I don't think information on how much is spent on roads, healthcare, police, education will affect security.

Because that's 550 billion dollars. A very significant portion of that does not need to be secret.

And a lot of it isn't. https://www.fiscal.treasury.gov/fsreports/rpt/mthTreasStmt/b... breaks out how military spending is allocated to some level of detail.