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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

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.

budget defense
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.

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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.



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