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The Federal government's debt is now stands at $13.8 trillion and is projected to hit $20 trillion by the end of the coming decade. The breakdown would mean every American holds more than $10,000 worth of America’s debt. However, the largest portion of the country’s federal budget is hardly ever questioned.
The US federal government debt now stands at over 13 trillion dollars, yet it continued excess military spending rages forward. The economy is in shambles and it seems the military is conducting business unrestrained.
“The fact of the matter is and you can see it by the military budget, the U.S. is in fact a warfare state. It’s addicted to militarism, its addicted to war spending and it’s addicted to war profits,” said Becker.
The United States spends nearly as much on military hardware, fixture and training as all other countries combined.
“The fact of the matter is and you can see it by the military budget, the U.S. is in fact a warfare state. It’s addicted to militarism, its addicted to war spending and it’s addicted to war profits,” said Becker.
Originally posted by kn0wh0w
Becker said it best
“The fact of the matter is and you can see it by the military budget, the U.S. is in fact a warfare state. It’s addicted to militarism, its addicted to war spending and it’s addicted to war profits,” said Becker.
Originally posted by LoneGunMan
54% of our federal budget goes to the military industrial complex and you claim it has no effect? The budget that is sucking us all under and you think that cutting some of that 54% wont help?!?
No one in the lobbyist-infested halls of Congress and the Pentagon wants to see the signposts of our impending defense meltdown. But consider four ugly facts:
Originally posted by Cosmic911
Defense is being showered with more dollars today than at any time since the end of World War II.
Defense spending in the United States has fluctuated in the last century, rising from one percent of GDP, peaking at 42 percent in World War II, declining from 10 percent in the Cold War to five percent today.
The defense establishment that sent the White Fleet around the world before World War I was tiny, compared to the defense establishment of mid century. It was about 1.25 percent of GDP. Yet this tiny establishment was expanded into an expeditionary army in World War I that consumed over 14 percent of GDP and turned the tide of the war in France. After the war the armed forces were rapidly demobilized and defense spending returned to about 1.25 percent of GDP.
Then in World War II the United States achieved an unprecedented mobilization of resources, and defense spending rose to 42 percent of GDP in 1945. But after the war it never returned to previous levels. From a low of 7.33 percent of GDP in 1948 it doubled to 15 percent at the height of the Korean War in 1953, and was maintained at about 10 percent during the peak of the Cold War through the end of the Vietnam War. Against this the defense buildup during the Reagan era, from 5.6 percent of GDP in 1979 to 7 percent of GDP in 1986 was modest, and the Bush buildup from 3.6 percent in 1999 to 6 percent in 2010 to fight the first battles against Islamist extremism equally restrained. The plans of the Obama administration show a reduction in spending back to 4.6 percent of GDP by 2015. source
* The forces the Pentagon has been buying with those growing dollars have been shrinking steadily since 1946.
* These shrinking forces are more and more antiquated: the average age of our aircraft, ships, and tanks has been increasing relentlessly since the '50s.
* Despite all the extra money, training is shrinking, too. Key combat units are being sent to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with less and less training.
This is an older article but it highlights some of the inadequacies regardless of immense defense spending.
These are all highly valid points and plays to my statement earlier about there being room to modify the exisiting defense budget to make it more efficient. It still remains, however, that defense spending is not the major cause of our fiscal woes.
A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.
a congressional watchdog group found in 2008, over 150 Members of Congress had $196 million collectively invested in defense contractors
Originally posted by Cosmic911
I think in pre-Korea, during WWI or WWII, the economy was stimulated by war, money went back in the hands of the people, there were jobs....I don't think that's the case anymore. Not that a nation should go to war to stimulate the economy, I just think that was a secondary effect.
The money stays in the hands of the few these days. We are still dumping money into a defense budget like we did during the Cold-War. Our thinking has to change. Our tactics have to change. Washington has to change.
a congressional watchdog group found in 2008, over 150 Members of Congress had $196 million collectively invested in defense contractors
The Military-Industrial Complex is here...and its hungry!
Originally posted by Open_Minded Skeptic
Ill conceived military adventurism is by no means our only economic problem, but it is a major contributor.
The obvious insider trading aspect of elected officials is obscene. It does however extend to all aspects of spending as they are making decisions for all departments and spending sectors based on profiteering from these decisions. You and I would go to prison for this (and for a long time), they however get rich while putting us in the poor house.