Also borrowed dollars. The federal budget deficit is $1.38T in 2022, enough to fund 16 NSAs.

Snapshots are valueless. The deficit shot up to 3T in 2020, though I'm not really sure why (;. Then, in 2022 it was cut in half. It looks like we're on track to hit pre-Iraq War levels of deficit in another few years.

https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/natio...

We haven't run a surplus since 2001, and I'd be very surprised if we continue to see the deficit decline. You can think of 2020/2021 as outliers because of all the pandemic spending assistance, and then taking them out, we're back on the same trendline since 2015, i.e. up. Likely will be even steeper if we get a recession later this year or next.

Its insane that NSA is 1/16 of federal budget. Thats way too much money to spend on merely one part of the defense budget.

Deficit, not budget.

Are they safe from government shutdown brinkmanship

Usually, government shutdown excludes security-critical programs.

In the past, the government workers got unpaid time off. Then Congress quietly voted to reinstate all of lost pay so it turned into extra paid time off that didn't count toward the vacation allowance.

It's not guaranteed, but I would guess that Congress would do the same thing again.