I'm addressing the quote in the OP.
"If half the budget is military spending, then less than half of it goes towards whatever it's defending" is the premise.
To me, that implies that military spending is not counted as "toward whatever it's defending", which would be the nation and its citizens. To me, that seems like fractured logic, which I classify as in the same moral corner as a (more outright) lie. It strikes me as obvious that defense spending is spent in support of the nation and its citizens.
That has been my focus all along: not whether the statement is good or bad or moral or whatnot ... it seems internally inconsistent to me. I posit that until that inconsistency is fixed, there really is nothing to discuss. Closer to the point: I cannot recommend holding a sociopolitical opinion based on fractured logic. Our responsibility as engaged adults is ... other. cn