With respect to the DoD, it won't surprise anyone that the US is the top spender in the world. What does surpise people is by how much.
In 2009, the US spent $663 billion. The #2 spender, China, spent $98.8 billion. The US spent 6.7 times more than the next highest country.
In fact, the US spent more the next 16 countries combined -- more than the total sum of China, United Kingdom, France, Russia, Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, India, South Korea, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Spain, Turkey, and Israel. [And Israel's is subsidized by the US.]
Ok, the US has a bigger economy than these countries. The US spent 4.3% of its GDP. The only other countries in that range are small Middle Eastern and African countries. The highest western nation is Greece at 3.6%. For the top spenders, China, 2.0%; United Kingdom, 2.5%; France, 2.3%; Russia, 3.5%; Germany, 1.3%.
Anyway you slice it, the US taxpayers have a much higher burden than any of these other countries. You could argue that the US needs to be able to be a world-class power. Fine, but be prepared to pay world-class taxes to pay for it.
Anyway, the relevance to Amtrak is to illustrate how stupid "Get rid of Amtrak, the Park Service, earmarks, and foreign aid, and the budget will be balanced." NOT EVEN CLOSE, NOT EVEN A START.