Absurd US Defense Spending Put In Context w/Graph (Iraq, soldier, weapons)

[Delta Planter]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

Great visual of US Defense spending in comparison to other Nations.

US partners in Western Europe alone spend 50% more than China/Russia combined.

Matthew Yglesias » US Defense Spending In Context

We cannot afford this. Military spending should be cut by 25% at the least.

For one thing, you should really attempt to find something a tad more current. This crap is two years old.

So, the US spends more to protect and defend a lifestyle, and an economy - bad as it is at the moment - that people from all over the world want, or want to take away from us. We ARE the better mousetrap, and have been for years, therefore all the mice in the world want to come here, to have a better-than-snakes chance to profit, to raise a family, to retire in comfort.

And just how does the US protect and defend all this? The military of course. It is the front line of defense, of protection, so that folks like you, who preach luvin instead of killin can do the preaching. I realize it's old hat to you, but do you still not believe the islamists want nothing more than what we've got, at any cost, and then to throw it all down the toilet because mohammed sez so, so they can continue to live in caves, wipe themselves with bare hands, and eat with the clean one?

You, pc, and your cronies just never cease to entertain. When the muslims are released from Gitmo into the US - God forbid - Iwould like to see you at the port of entry of choice to welcome them with open arms, open minds, open wallets. They'll kill you anyway, so go out in style.

Keep up the good work.

[pghquest]

Originally Posted by padcrasher

No I'm not supporting cuts in social programs. I'm wanting the Defense budget cuts to go towards decreasing deficit spending. ie debt service

There is nothing hypocritcal about it.

So you get to pick and choose what gets cut, if you want tu cut deficit spending, fine, lets cut social spending which is greater than the defense budget if I recall.

[ringwise]

Originally Posted by mhouse2001

A country that spends so much on war cannot proclaim that its intentions are peaceful.

It spends on DEFENSE. That is the one thing our government should be spending our tax dollars on. Not airports that 3 people use, not to study gay bars in Argentina, not in studying the affect of pig farts.

[Quick Enough]

Did you ever read the Constitution? One of the main reasons for a federal government is for National Defense, not a federal nanny state where the feds are into every aspect of our lives.

I say less social spending and spend whatever is needed for national defense.

[tinman01]

When discussing the military budget I think a few people forget the pork that is always attached. I think some forget the pet projects and the fact that our elected reps force the Military to spend money on projects they really didn't want.
Should we stop R&D ? Its our advanced technology that saves the lives of oursoldiers and gives us a clear cut advantage.
Its our technology that minimizes civilian casualties.
I would prefer to cut all foreign aid.
Cut benefits for our elected reps
Down size the fed gov.
Require those countries like Germany, Japan and S.Korea to pay for the security that we provide them or bring our troops home.

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by pghquest

These figures I'm assuming do include the fact that we are fighting 2 wars, and no other country is doing so. btw, lets compare this spending to social spending, since your saying we cant afford this, I'm assuming you'll then support cuts in social spending which is even more.

The cost of both wars are, by the design of the Bush Administration, not part of the defense budget and instead carried by non-budgeted spending bills. around $300 billion per year in nonBudgeted spending. That is to say that $300 billion is in addition to the spending on the graph not part of.

One of the main reasons Bush's final Budget was $3.2 trillion and Obama's first budget is $3.5 billion is that Obama includes the cost of the wars where as Bush attempted to hide them off the budget. Of course Obama plays a few games of his own by not including the cost of the Stimulus Bill on the budget but to be fair actual physical outlays of that are only about ~$350 billion spread over three years while the remainder is in tax breaks.

If you look at a graph of world wide military spending you'll find we've almost always spent more then the next 10 to 20 countries combined. Which is rather wasteful as 80% of them are allies. In all honestly the only reason the spending is so high is because contractors bribe Congressmen to get the votes they want and then the contractors suck up about 23% of the entire national budget. This is a screaming crime.

[KRAMERCAT]

Well don't you know we have to defend ourselves from the Godless Chinese Commies? - Oh, they make most of our stuff now? I mean protect ourselves against those Godless Russian Commies? Oh, they are our friends now? Then what about those crazy Muslim terrorists? Oh, you mean we actually have been helping them for the past few decades? Then we need all those weapons to fight the dreaded - SOMALI PIRATES!

[texdav]

That shows you why we had to lead in dessert storm besides the fact that if yo0u saw the cost of medicare and medicaid you would drop dead and especaily the project future spemding. It would make you wander how we ever could affors a universal healthcare system.I franklt will pay morer taxes for military bedcuase itas the first duty of any nation. We saw now weak all of europe was in Bosnia conflict.

[I Like Taxes]

Source: World Military Spending — Global Issues
Another supportive source: World Wide Military Expenditures

And under the Obama administration, defense expenditures are to increase by 4%, but we already knew that Obama wasn't against military spending or against war.
Obama, Gates Propose 4% Increase in Defense Spending -- Politics Daily

[Oerdin]

Originally Posted by I Like Taxes

Source: World Military Spending — Global Issues
Another supportive source: World Wide Military Expenditures

And under the Obama administration, defense expenditures are to increase by 4%, but we already knew that Obama wasn't against military spending or against war.
Obama, Gates Propose 4% Increase in Defense Spending -- Politics Daily

Thank you, that is an excellent post full of facts. It shows how completely absurd our military spending has become; completely out of proportion to all need and/or threat. We could easily cut it by 1/3 just by cancelling unneeded new defense systems which cost 5-10 times more but perform only 2%-3% better then the systems they replace. Make the existing designs last longer. Does anyone recall that the old Jeep was made to work for 40 years because it worked so well? Now days the contractors try to replace everything every 10 years or so even if it doesn't need replacing. **** that. We can save massive amounts of money simply by canceling useless and unneeded weapon systems. Only about 3% of our military spending goes to actual troops while the 97% goes to contractors. **** the contractors.