Barney Frank warned: "reduce military budget," Not Social Security or Medicare:

[amborin]

$57,000 per minute spent in Afghanistan

snip

".....Imagine, for a moment, when you read about the multi-millions going into further construction at Bagram Air Base, or to the mercenary company that provides "Lord of the Flies" hire-a-gun guards for American diplomats in massive super-embassies, or about the half-a-billion dollars sunk into a corrupt and fraudulent Afghan election, what a similar investment in our own country might have meant.

Ask yourself: Wouldn't the U.S. have been safer and more secure if all the money, effort, and planning had gone towards "nation-building" in America? Or do you really think we're safer now, with an official unemployment rate of 9.7%, an underemployment rate of 16.8%, and a record 25.5% teen unemployment rate, with soaring health-care costs, with vast infrastructural weaknesses and failures, and in debt up to our eyeballs, while tens of thousands of troops and massive infusions of cash are mustered ostensibly to fight a terrorist outfit that may number in the low hundreds or at most thousands, that, by all accounts, isn't now even based in Afghanistan, and that has shown itself perfectly capable of settling into broken states ....."

snip

http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/afghanistan-numbers





Per-capita Defense Spending 1962-2014 (inflation-adjusted 2009 dollars)



"In February 2009, Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., called for a reduction in the defense budget:

"The math is compelling: if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget starting fairly soon, it will be impossible to continue to fund an adequate level of domestic activity even with a repeal of Bush's tax cuts for the very wealthy.

I am working with a variety of thoughtful analysts to show how we can make very substantial cuts in the military budget without in any way diminishing the security we need... well-being is far more endangered by a proposal for substantial reductions in Medicare, Social Security or other important domestic areas than it would be by canceling weapons systems that have no justification from any threat we are likely to face...."

snip


Total 2010 Defense Spending: $685.1 billion

change from 2009-2010 +3.0%



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

[sandnsea]

1. Interest on Debt is exploding on that chart

We've always spent a fortune on defense, it doesn't look like it's too terribly out of proportion from the past. Interest on debt is though. We've got to get a handle on both of them if we don't want to cut social security and medicare.

[Hannah Bell]

2. Just 33% "out of proportion". Per the chart, defense spending stayed under 600

billion (inflation-adjusted dollars) until the bush admin, when it suddenly rose precipitously to over $800 billion (constant inflation-adjusted dollars). Interest spending, otoh, ballooned 80s through 90s, shrank, & is predicted to balloon again after 2010.

[sandnsea]

4. Yes it's 2010

That's what I'm looking at. I know why we're in this mess, the Iraq War and the Bush Tax Cuts. But we're still here. How are we going to get out? Raising taxes definitely needs to be part of the equation. But I don't think we can raise taxes enough to offset this deficit, can we?

[Hannah Bell]

6. it's january of 2010. interest is predicted to balloon to values the same as in the

80s-90s.

Total defense spending, otoh, has already exceeded the historical values presented in the chart -- in constant dollars.

which is the number one reason defense interest payments are rising.

[sandnsea]

8. Yes, Bush had us in a war

But that spending still wasn't the equivalent of Vietnam, Korea or WWII. Certainly it is higher than 1976 or 1993, but it can be reduced as Iraq and Afghanistan are reduced. What about interest on the debt?

[Hannah Bell]

10. the chart goes from 1962 to 2014 & uses constant dollars. thus either the chart is wrong,

or in fact, today's military-related spending is higher than during the vietnam war.

the chart doesn't include the 40s & 50s, so in terms of the *chart*, korea & ww2 are irrelevant.

what the chart shows is that ballooning defense spending under bush has contributed more than ballooning interest on military debt. the debt is a function of the spending, not the other way round.

[sandnsea]

20. Let me see, Yes Bush had us in a war

But that spending will be reduced as we get out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Isn't that what I said?

We're still left with the debt in the future. Interest is going to explode. One way to reduce that is to reduce the debt. The chart already shows defense spending going down.

There is nothing we can do about what Bush spent on the war.

[JDPriestly]

3. K&R

We have to cut military spending. We simply cannot afford the military we have. We cannot afford to have troops all over the world. Our economy does not support that kind of war machine any more.

[EFerrari]

5. The MIC has involved this nation in what amounts to a suicide pact.

[Sherman A1]

11. Agreed & Well Said

[w4rma]

7. Wall Street needs those weapons and this is the Wall Street President. (nt)

[defendandprotect]

9. PLUS if we would stop separating our military into AF, Army, Navy we'd save 28% . ..!!!

Every other country evidently has STOPPED doing that -- !!!

[onethatcares]

12. pretty much every other country has

stopped invading other countries in order to establish democracy.

Hell, the Chinese have invaded us with cheap poison crap and we welcome it with open arms.

What happened to our country?

[defendandprotect]

23. Agree . . . STOP starting wars would be even better -- !!

Re China -- try to buy anything lately that isn't made in China?

I had bought a new garlic press -- you know you use it to mince garlic --

I love red --

NEVER thought about this until one night I noticed the "red" was coming off with the garlic?

They're still selling these things at Kings Supermarket!!

We're also giving money to the Vatican "faith based" organizations -- !!!

Love that one!!

:)

[Betty Karlson]

13. Let's do it then. It's freezing time anyway.

[Enthusiast]

14. The MIC is a sacred cow. nt

[KharmaTrain]

18. It's A Profit Center...

One reason defense spending isn't cut is that there are thousands of jobs in that sector...one of the few that grew in the past decade. War is big business.

[ShortnFiery]

19. Albeit WAR is Big Business, it is tragically The Business of "Death and Destruction."

As a species, we will annihilate ourselves if we continue to FORCE our will on "the other."

As the Doomsday Clock moves ever closer to Midnight, it's time for the human beings to realize, "Might Makes Right as it leads us down the path to extinction."

If we keep it up, we'll be lucky to leave the place (Mother Earth) to the cockroaches.

[snagglepuss]

15. K & R nt

[unhappycamper]

16. That $57,000 a minute is for the 'new' 30,000 boots on the ground.

It is less than 33% of the cost of the ongoing of the occupation.

[ShortnFiery]

17. On this issue Barney Frank is Spot On.

I'm sorry that I ever doubted him.

[Odin2005]

21. We were almost back to sanity in the 90s, then W came.

Anyone else see a pattern of bigger and bigger waves caused by Republican deficit spending (Nixon, Reagan, Bush)?

[LeftinOH]

22. How much does it cost to at year just to keep Gitmo open (never mind the detainees)..??

Consider the costs: All fresh water has to be shipped in; Transporting personnel to/from the base; all goods have to be shipped in (no trade with Cuba), etc. We are only holding onto Guantanamo Bay out of pure spite -and the expense can't be worth it.