It Appears That $1 Trillion Dollars a Year Is Not Enough

[unhappycamper]

unhappycamper note: Since the Pentagon has ‘requested’ that I only post one paragraph from articles on Army Times, and Airforce Times, I’ve decided to give ya’ll an unhappycamper summary of the article and a link to the OP. To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.

To read the article in the military's own words, you will need to click the link.

I didn't realize that the Pentagon/MIC could restrict my First Amendment rights as well as morph the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107 with zero, zip, nada Congressional approval. It sure is beginning to smell like fascism.[br />
unhappycamper summary of this article: The 2011 'Defense' budget represents 58% of all discretionary money. The debt service for 2011 is expected to be 7% of all discretionary money. So the pot that funds stuff like aid to cities and towns, job training and education uses 65% of all its funding to keep the occupations and Military Industrial (Congressional) Complex running full tilt. (Keep in mind that the occupations have been funded with 'Emergency Supplementals' a.k.a. the credit card.)

I'm sure the parents that need to buy papers and pencils for their school children this school year might have an issue or two with that 65% number.




According to the analysis of the Project on Defense Alternatives, between 1998 and 2010 Congress appropriated to the Pentagon $2.144 Trillion (with a “T”) more than was anticipated by the 1999 “baseline.” Of that amount, $1.113 Trillion was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and $1.031 Trillion was added to “base” (non-war) Pentagon spending. (See p. 3 of PDA’s study, “An Undisciplined Defense: Understanding the $2 Trillion Surge in US Defense Spending.” I basically concur with PDA’s numbers, which are from DoD and OMB budget data as described on p. 61.)

http://www.dodbuzz.com/2010/08/30/1-trillion-bought-older-smaller-forces-fix-it-mr-gates/

[Fumesucker]

1. K&R, thanks for posting..

[loudsue]

2. The military industrial complex keeps pushing the meme "supporting the troops" every time

a defense spending bill comes up for a vote. Here's what I'd REALLY like to know:

Exactly what percentage of that defense spending actually pays our soldiers, and for their personal safety?

NOT the "privatized army" guys
NOT the waaaay overpriced construction sites to build, bomb and re-build runways and cities.
NOT all the toys that they try to convince us are so important.

Just the cost for our soldiers and their families for salary, food, clothing/flack jackets, etc, and medical care for them. Just the amount the congress appropriates to keep our guys and gals alive.

[glitch]

3. Damn good question. nt

[russspeakeasy]

18. You won't like the answer....

It will be less than 15%....

[gratuitous]

4. That's about $3 billion a day, every day, weekends and holidays included

And in order to keep up that pace, social security and medicare recipients had by the Christ better be ready to tighten their belts. So sayeth Alan Simpson, so mote it be.

[Silent3]

5. Perhaps Alan Simpson can tell us how many tits the military has.

Or is the military tit count classified?

[dreamnightwind]

13. Nope. DADT, eom

[loudsue]

6. How in the hell has this post managed to sink?

This is hugely important!!

[molly77]

7. The US is an occupied country

just like Iraq. Remember when the priceless antiquities in their museums were getting looted? The troops couldn't do anything about it because that wasn't their mission.Well, everything in America is getting looted now.Goes with occupation.

It started when the election was decided by the Supreme court in 2000. The excuse the democrats gave US was that it would be just too upsetting to fight this huge injustice. One of the Supreme Court's jobs is to set precedence. But in 2000, it was decided that was a one shot deal.

Now the democrats are trying to save money by cutting back on social security...raising the retirement age.We need to start a third party. For progressives/slash liberals. Right now we don't have a party. First thing on the liberal agenda should be to bring back fair and transparent elections.After that vote in an almost entirely new House and Senate...because our reps. are representing corporations, banks and Wall Street. TARP was a tell. Have the banks ever disclosed what they did with tax payer's money? Should we have to beg for that information?

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. You're fucking kidding me.

Government publications are copyrighted?

There is only one reason for copyrights, so that the owner of the material can profit from it, right?

DEAR GOVERNMENT; WE'RE THE OWNERS OF THAT MATERIAL, BY VIRTUE OF HAVING PAID YOUR SALARIES TO PREPARE IT, ASSHATS.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. Actually they're owned by Gannett News the people that own USA Today

just sayin'

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Oh. Well that's entirely different.

Never mind.

[Norrin Radd]

9. kr

[djp2]

10. I thought that Government publications..

were free from copyright restrictions since they are produced with taxpayer money. How can they claim copyright protection??

[raouldukelives]

11. k&r

[The Wizard]

12. Eisenhower warned us and no one listened

Wen are a quasi military dictatorship with a civilian front man. The Military Industrial Media Complex is a dangerous out of control hydra that drains the treasury daily. That 19 guys with box cutters brought this country to its knees speaks volumes to our ineffective over priced defenses.
We are entitled to a full refund, whether we get one is highly doubtful.
No entity of government squanders resources like our bloated military. And the do it because the media constantly pushes fear.
We need to reexamine the words of FDR, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

[Lagomorph]

14. Without trying to support the spending...

I know the priority is to return and repair all the gear they've worn out in the Middle East. The worn out ships and aircraft are a real headache for them, currently.

I won't even bother asking why the hell we need B-2 bombers and rolling bank vaults to fight a few thousand guys with AK's & RPGs.

[paparush]

15. K&R for the future-stealing truth.

[Octafish]

17. Hey, Obama! Where's that peace dividend?

Wake up. Gates was and still is BFEE: War and Profits Without End.

[ctwayne]

20. Republican Ideas

Obama has spent the last two years saying he wants to listen to Republican ideas. But actually, we had Republican ideas for eight years under the Bush-Cheney regime. The Republican ideas were:
(1) Waste several trillion dollars on unnecessary wars.
(2) Waste several trillion dollars on unnecessary tax breaks for the wealthy.
(3) Strongly promote global warming and air and water pollution.

What part of these Republican ideas does Obama find so interesting?

[uppityperson]

23. Pres Obama promotes global warming and air and water pollution? huh

[Chan790]

24. No.

He's saying President Obama should not listen to GOP ideas. He then summarizes key GOP ideas from within a liberal frame to demonstrate why President Obama shouldn't give a whistling fuck what the GOP's ideas are. The key notion here is that the GOP's ideas are bad for America and we shouldn't be buying them even on wholesale.

(or, in summary: Bipartisanship should be a four-letter word.)

[uppityperson]

26. Ah, thank you. Was reading it as "what part of these ideas in particular does he find appealing"

[sulphurdunn]

21. It becomes clearer why we need entitlement reform

in things like Medicare and Social Security.

[L0oniX]

22. All the flag waving and support the troops patriotism is for fools.

Fools cut their own throat with all the military spending. It's self destruction and on a much larger scale than that of Russia. Russia spend about 50 billion this year on its military. That's quite an extreme figure to compare with what our gov takes from us and spends on its military ...and I say "its" because it is not my military. Mine would truly be for defense only and not at the cost of our "civilian" economy nor our SS or health care and schools.

[Chan790]

25. I support the troops!

I've got a big old yellow-ribbon magnet on my Expedition made by Chinese child slave labor just so everybody can know how much I support the troops. :patriot:

[L0oniX]

27. I pay my federal taxes which mostly go to the pentagon to help the troops.

[OwnedByFerrets]

28. K and R