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Chart of the Day: Military Spending
| Tue Feb. 2, 2010 12:02 PM PST
Via Spencer Ackerman, here's the Pentagon's estimate for future spending. Ignore the gray bars at the top — those are just the numbers for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Look instead at the blue bars. That's the base Pentagon budget, and it's increasing 3% per year in nominal terms.
If we applied the same freeze to Pentagon spending that we're applying to domestic spending, their FY13 base budget would be the same as their FY10 base budget: $531 billion. That would be a $51 billion savings in just a single year. So why not do it? What is it that makes us think our national security needs are going to get more and more pressing but not our domestic needs?
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Comments
What is it that makes us think ...
Submitted by rbe1 (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 12:09 PM PST.
It's the so-called defense industry that makes us think we need all of this stuff. It's the Military-Industrial Complex ! Roll over, Dwight.
What is it that makes
Submitted by optical weenie on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 12:28 PM PST.
us think that our national security needs are going to get more and more pressing?
China
The Pentagon budget should be cut by a couple of hundred billion. We have to face the truth, however, that the military is an enormous jobs and job training program.
What would our current unemployment figure look like if half the members of the military were dumped back into the job market? That along with what would happen if half the people in prison were released.
If we canceled at least half of the weapons development programs we would also dump a large quantity of engineers into an already saturated area of the job market.
But yeah, in the end we should cut our military spending in half. Starve the beast. It will save us from bankruptcy.
Make Lemonade
Submitted by Thumb on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 2:47 PM PST.
So why don't we put all those unemployed engineers and high tech workers to work making something useful other than military toys, like high speed rail, energy efficiency projects, communications and energy infrastructure...
We could provide a hundred times the employment
Submitted by leafsong1 (not verified) on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 10:21 AM PST.
provided by the military budget if we targetted the same funds towards the goal of providing employment, not the least becasue such jobs would produce goods and services that can be used without blowing them up and killing people. Jobs are a minor side effect of military spending that profiteers try to hide behind. Don't fall for it.
"Ignore the gray bars"?
Submitted by SDJim on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 12:55 PM PST.
Well, ok, and what have we got for all the rest? Security? Hmmm. And about those gray bars--same question.
Because We Didn't Elect a Veteran
Submitted by Bill Harshaw on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 12:57 PM PST.
Had we Dems elected a veteran as President, he or she might have been able to cut DOD. Because Obama never got close to the military, he'd be too vulnerable politically if he were to try to cut, particularly in the midst of two wars.
Those aren't wars - they are
Submitted by Art Eclectic on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 3:52 PM PST.
Those aren't wars - they are military occupations.
Military Spending
Submitted by Horatio Parker (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 1:08 PM PST.
will bring us down just as it did the Soviet Union.
Bankruptcy here we come.
And Rome. Oh brave New World
Submitted by Cassandra of Troy on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 5:45 PM PST.
And Rome. Oh brave New World that hath such Empires in it!
For all the new enemies.
Submitted by Omega Centauri (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 1:32 PM PST.
As we get more and more out of step with the rest of the world we are going to gain new enemies. Financial regulation so we don't export financial instability -don't need no stinkin regulation. Cap and Trade so we don't overwhelm the worlds climate "dont need that". Don't have enough oil, just bump off a middle eastern country.... So as we become more and more like Fox news wants us to be, we gain more and more enemies. High defense spending works like a self fulfilling prophecy, the bigger your club, the more you feel like you need an even bigger one.
The Costs
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 1:49 PM PST.
Why more military spending?
Our unsustainable, non negotiable, Republican way of living. And, oh yeah, the coming Republican return to power. Kind of like investing in tons of lube before we get incarcerated again.
The Costs
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 1:51 PM PST.
Why more military spending?
Our unsustainable, non negotiable, Republican way of living. And, oh yeah, the coming Republican return to power. Kind of like investing in tons of lube before we get incarcerated again.
Hey, idiot, Pay ATTENTION!
Submitted by leafsong1 (not verified) on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 10:25 AM PST.
Who is running the government, Democrats or Republicans? Calling this all a Republican nightmare was sufficient to fool you into voting for the Democrats when the Republicans were in charge. Now the Dems are in charge, but you still can't get a clue. What will it take to get you to open your eyes and see this country the way it is?
Military equipment might be
Submitted by B on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 1:54 PM PST.
Military equipment might be one of the few things manufactured in the US. However, buying more from ourselves won't help our trade deficit so we might as well put these folks to work on permanent infrastructure. You know, stuff not designed to explode.
Why?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 2:06 PM PST.
D.C. -- Our paralyzed government is going to get us into a deeper world of shit -- more self inflicted hurt than the terrorists could ever dream up.
I'd be okay with taking some
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 2:11 PM PST.
I'd be okay with taking some amount of the defense budget and placing it directly into nuclear or wind or more sustainable/greener less dependent energy sources.
This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 2:47 PM PST.
"The Senate Finance Committee legislation to revamp the health care system would provide coverage to 29 million uninsured Americans but would still pare future federal deficits by slowing the growth of spending on medical care...at a cost of $829 billion over 10 years." That's over 10 years, not in one year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/health/policy/08health.html
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/9556.html
Eisenhauer presided over much of the worst of it,
Submitted by leafsong1 (not verified) on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 10:28 AM PST.
and did nothing. I am disinclined to credit him with actually believeing what he says in this quote. Actions speak louder than words.
One more graph is needed
Submitted by Thumb on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 2:52 PM PST.
And now show us how the US military spending compares to the rest of the world. It's bad enough that we're spending $700,000,000,000 a year, it's unconscionable that we're spending 6x what the rest of the world spends COMBINED.
"What is that makes us think
Submitted by MaynardHandley on Tue Feb. 2, 2010 4:06 PM PST.
"What is that makes us think our national security needs are going to get more and more pressing but not our domestic needs?"
We're broke. How are we going to get the oil we need except by stealing it? That's what you need a big military for.
More far-sighted planning from the neo-cons you love to mock so much!
Why not triple military
Submitted by Luther on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 12:12 AM PST.
Why not triple military spending to stimulate the economy? Kill two birds with one stone.
"What is it that makes us
Submitted by flubber on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 2:08 AM PST.
"What is it that makes us think our national security needs are going to get more and more pressing?"
Arabs and Muslims getting too uppity for our, and Israel's, comfort.
A closer look at the graph
Submitted by leafsong1 (not verified) on Wed Feb. 3, 2010 10:39 AM PST.
1) Pay attention to the gray bars. They are there to hide the true rate of growth. The war spending is growing almost twice as fast as the rest of the miilitary budget. The chart shows projected war spending dropping off rapidly in the immediate future for no rational reason; it will, of course, be instead growing rapidly. War spending measured in actuarial terms is actually much higher, because much of the expense incurred now will be paid in the future (caring for the wounded, nation building, replacing worn equipment, etc.).
2) The rate of growth is identical regardless of who holds the White House and Congress.
3) In 2015, the budget will have more than doubled from 2001, even though in 2001, US defense spending was greater than that of all other nations combined.
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