The federal government of any country can only allocate so much money for welfare programs as well as other vital programs, because governments do not have an unlimited amount of money to draw upon. In fact, the wealth that nations spend on its military, infrastructure, social programs, and the like are limited to the productivity of its citizens; so that, decisions must be made by governmental representatives as to how best allocate the money so collected, to programs, that are most beneficial to the people, in whole.
According to statista.com the United States spent a total of $649 billion on its military spending in 2018, in which China spent an estimated total of $250 billion, and Russia a total of a mere $64.1 billion. China has a population that is four times the amount of people that the United States has, yet China, spends $450 billion less on its military than America does. In regards to Russia, which the United States insisted upon for decades as being a real and present danger to America, Russia's spending on their defense budget, is only 10% of what America spends. So too, it must be well acknowledged that America has no contiguous enemies; in fact, America's relationship with both Canada and Mexico is quite sound and stable. The only country within the western hemisphere that in recent memory, has posed any threat whatsoever to America, was the tiny island state of Cuba, in which Russia used such as a proxy back in the early 1960s. But recognize this, Cuba's most vital bay, known as Guantanamo Bay, has been in the control and thereby occupied by the United States since 1898, so that it is fair to state that a country that has its most important bay, legally occupied by the United States is not a country that could ever be a serious threat to America.
America spends an inordinate amount of money on its military, of which those tens of billions upon tens of billions of dollars that are spent, are to a very large extent, the taking of money from the people, or even of generations yet born, to build armaments, munitions, and the infrastructure that goes along with such, that has no real productive value, but rather is the spending of tens of billions of monies on the making of that which is destructive in its design and in its purpose. So that, tens of billions upon tens of billions of dollars, have been taken from the people that live in this the richest of all countries in the history of the world; so that the net result is that the underclass of America will continue to suffer and continue to exist under quite dire and troubling circumstances, that need not occur, but does occur, because America cares much more about the destroying and the endless pursuit of inchoate enemies, than it does about creating a nation in which each citizen is rightfully entitled to a good education, good housing, good healthcare, and good opportunity.
That which will right the good ship of America, has been in its hands and in its control, for generations, but America does not have the moral courage to do the right thing by its citizens, but rather prefers to flex its muscles, and thereby to create havoc throughout the world, making this world a far more dangerous place than it ever need be. America has deliberately left behind the most vulnerable of its citizens, for it cares not for them, but rather cares far more for the lure of the glory of war and the lust for empire.