From the Washington Post: The US Defense budget, in charts

The Washington Post does their readers--and the nation, I'd propose--a terrific service in January by having an article on:

America's staggering defense budget, in charts

I'll only post a few here, the most glaring and important, to me:

The United States spent 20 percent of the federal budget on defense in 2011.

All told, the U.S. government spent about $718 billion on defense and international security assistance in 2011 — more than it spent on Medicare. That includes all of the Pentagon's underlying costs as well as the price tag for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which came to $159 billion in 2011. It also includes arms transfers to foreign governments.

Defense spending has risen dramatically since 9/11. (no surprise)

The United States spent more on its military than the next 13 nations combined in 2011.

Ordinary Americans want to cut defense spending far more than is already on the table

What we spend on defense is obscene--morally, sure, but even regarding logic and fiscal and economic sustainability. What we spend on "defense", I contend, only weakens the nation, taking away from both what we spend on infrastructure and the people but also taking away from our own nation's coffers and economic stability.

I think it important to keep in mind what took the now-former Soviet Union down.

It was spending on defense.