War Spending
I agree with President Madison. War is largely to blame for taxes, and our debt.When I recently posted on this, I was attacked anonymously, mainly for the following:
"The yellow is money we use to kill people. Notice how it's much bigger than anything else we spend money on."Anonymous said that we don't really spend that much on national defense, and besides, the money we use on defense isn't all for killing people. (Is that an accurate paraphrase, anonymous?)
I decided to repent for my sloppy fact-posting and went on a search for how much we actually spend on war, and found this:
Which isn't too far off from what I posted. It appears we don't spend more on war than on anything else. We actually spend 44% on war, and 64% on everything else. So I was wrong.
They didn't leave a space for comments, which, I assume, is why anonymous went crazy on me instead.
They also had a world comparison:
So if we don't spend more on war than we spend on other things, we definitely spend more than anyone else. Of course you can justify that by saying we're the world's police. But that's another argument, and a contradiction of every principle upon which this country was founded.We also spend more than we budget:
So these 'supplements' need to be taken into account as well.Arguably, this money isn't just used for killing, it also "pays the salaries, training, and healthcare of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new equipment." (wiki)
So here's a simple quiz.
Defense spending is complex. What is responsible for killing people? Many soldiers would not go to war if it were not for the salary and benefits offered to them. Many planes, ships, and vehicles never see combat. Hmm. I am not sure myself.
I also realized that the military-industrial complex does not only rely on the U.S. defense budget and anonymous commenters to back them up. They sell their wares worldwide. So we are even more of a war-mongering nation than I realized.
No wonder we hate Russia and France.I may have misstated some of my facts, but I stand by my point. We are too complacent, as a nation, about using our taxes to kill people. Getting so riled up about Obama's spending on social programs, when war spending doesn't even enter the debate, seems a little Twilight-Zonesque to me.
What does that say about who we are, and all our claims of being a Christian nation?
Here's a great link to the defense budget, with downloadable, point-by-point excel files.
I find it completely laughable that you think war is largely to blame for taxes and our debt.
ReplyDeleteOur federal government would like you to believe that the federal deficit for 2008 was $455 billion – but that’s based on cash accounting. Any company with revenues over $1 million is required, by law, to use accrual accounting. So according to GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices), the federal deficit is far more when you include the yearly changes in the net present value of unfunded liabilities in social programs (psssst...this is where the Democrats come in).
So the government tells us the deficit is $455. Using GAAP, without including Social Security or Medicare, the federal deficit is up to $1.009 trillion. And where does the actual debt land after we take into account those social programs that the Democrats started? $5.1 trillion, annually.
Now, moving on to defense spending.
The pie chart you posted is from 2009. I referenced our defense spending as it pertained to the 2008 budget. If Obama is going to raise defense spending, that’s something you’ll have to take up with him.
However, I think you are purposely being deceitful with the world defense spending pie chart. It seems that for dramatic effect, the makers chose to use the dollar for dollar defense spending numbers, but failed to take into account the national GDP for the countries that are mentioned in the chart. So which is more important to you – shock value or a meaningful discussion on how much countries are spending on defense as a percentage of their GDP?
US: $522 billion on defense, $13.84 trillion GDP = 3.77%
China: $63 billion on defense, $3.280 trillion GDP = 1.92%
Russia: $62 billion on defense, $1.289 trillion GDP = 4.81%
UK: $51 billion on defense, $2.804 trillion GDP = 1.82%
Japan: $45 billion on defense, $4.381 trillion GDP = 1.03%
France: $42 billion on defense, $2.593 trillion GDP = 1.62%
Germany: $30 billion on defense, $3.320 trillion GDP = 0.90%
North Korea: $6 billion on defense, $26 billion GDP = 23.1%
So while the US does spend more than several other powerful nations, we aren’t even #1 in defense spending as a percentage of our GDP (and can you believe France spends $42 billion per year on white flags?).
To be honest, none of this even matters to me. The federal government’s most important job is to protect us – so I wouldn’t care if defense took up 95% of the federal budget. Pretty much everything else could be left up to the states. If you’re going to keep repeating that the sole purpose of our defense budget is to ‘kill people’ – then that’s your prerogative as it is your blog. Don’t forget to thank GWB for keeping you safe these last 7 1/2 years.
It's okay that you have a different opinion. Thanks for posting the percent of GDP, that is enlightening.
ReplyDeleteLaughable as my ideas are, I'm happy that I stand alongside other idiots like James Madison in my opinions.
Yes, differing opinions are great. But the difference between me and you is that you keep making these erroneous statements, I show you why you are wrong and you either say that I'm attacking you or chalk it up to 'different opinions'.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just a different opinion that we're going bankrupt from Democrat programs, even though you purported that it was from war.
If you want, I can leave your blog alone and you can have a jolly good time throwing around ignorant statements, wearing your heart on your sleeve (that's pretty much the only thing liberals have to argue with - emotion, instead of logic), and go back to when the only person commenting was your wife - telling you how smart and amazing you are with all your inaccurate and emotional hyperbole.
I like the name change.
ReplyDeleteWhat was inaccurate? Cash accounting may be inferior to GAAP, but what about economic accounting? What about the opportunity costs incurred by devoting so much effort to destruction. The opportunity cost of lives cut short? Surely we do not have the means of calculating so great a loss. But I warn that those loses will be taken into account on the last day before the judgment bar of God.
Posting war spending as GDP may yield insights. But using our country's greater wealth to downplay how much we are spending on war ignores what Spider-man taught us: With great power, comes great responsibility, (Also taught by Jesus in Matthew 25).
My "inaccurate emotional hyperbole" is simply a result of me trying to reconcile my faith and beliefs to reality. Usually it's the liberals chewing out the conservatives for being so hopelessly ignorant and sentimental in their beliefs. I like the flip-flop.
Is "Anonymous" pro-war?
ReplyDeleteOne more thing, Anon. Leave my wife out of this.
ReplyDeleteYeah, leave his wife out of this. I think we can disagree without getting personal.
ReplyDeleteI am torn on war. I think it is a giant complex machine. It does immense amounts of good while doing immense amounts of evil...Nephi vs. Laban on a grander scale? When do we know when it is justified? How did we finally become free of the motherland? War. How did we then sew our nation back together to become even stronger and more glorious? War. Could I go to war and kill innocent civilians? NEVER! Do I think it's sick how they train soldiers to disconnect their minds from their souls? Yes! In the end I sigh and hug my children close and am grateful for living in a country that cares enough to spend the money to defend it's self. For better or for worse.
PS For what it's worth...Did you know that Steve joined the army and they are paying for him to go to school? $33,000 a year times 4 years...I am grateful for that much defense spending.
PPS I hate the French for different reasons :)