Opinion: Meaningful debate on military spending is MIA
By Daniel Wirls
As the president and Congress grind their way to a budgetary compromise that will do far more to further alienate the American public than solve our fiscal crisis, one thing – military spending – is all but overlooked. For all the strife over taxes and entitlements, the president and majorities in both parties agree on the following: Military spending is essentially off the table, even though it is far and away the most distorted part of the national budget, the most egregious mismatch between the country’s rational needs and the commitment of national resources.
Let’s remind ourselves of a few basic facts. Since 2001, the nation has spent more than $1.2 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During the same period, military spending has increased more than 80 percent. That 80-plus percent increase is separate from, in addition to, the $1.2 trillion for the wars. U.S. military spending is higher than at any point since World War II, without counting the hundreds of billions for the wars. The United States spends close to half the world’s total in military spending and our closest allies bring the total to more than 70 percent. At about $80 billion, the Pentagon’s budget for research and development, alone, exceeds the entire military budget of any nation except China.
Moreover, the fastest growing entitlement program is not Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security – it’s veterans’ benefits, a separate category of spending, independent of the Pentagon budget or war spending. Over the last decade, the Veterans Affairs budget increased from $47 billion to $124.7 billion per year, or 162 percent (compared to Medicare’s 109 percent, Medicaid’s 119 percent, and Social Security’s 61 percent).
Daniel Wirls is a professor of politics at UC Santa Cruz.
Most American citizens will gladly support providing services to our soldiers. However, what disturbs the population is the vast amount of money that has gone to the business interests that profit from war. It makes it very difficult to support any military action when the monied interests are pushing for war simply to make profits. To even suggest that American citizens pay for the war profiteers with their Social Security or Medicare is disgusting. Is this not obvious? Cut military profiteers, not soldiers’ benefits.
The war machine is all about money. I used to support Obama back when he was running for office and promising to end the war or at least control spending and bring home troops. He is no better than any republican when it comes to spending on the war machine. How disappointing! I am done voting for candidates within either of the major parties. Anyone who is tired of insane military spending (and the fact that, as stated in the article, there is never even discussion about cutting military spending) should be done with the two parties. Our government has taken advantage of our citizens turning a blind eye to this issue and not thinking on their own. It’s time to think, and vote, out of the box.
dumbfounded, exactly right! If we could stop the lobbyists from Military big business from supporting their favorite politicians, then maybe we’d have just as good, if not better equipment, and our military would be better taken care of. For that matter, get rid of all lobbyists.
We have to ask ourselves: Why does someone have to swindle someone to buy a product, if their product is so good? Why can a product, or service for that matter not stand on it’s own merits; which is, the capitalist way, is it not? Isn’t it more socialist to make someone buy from a particular entity? I’m no scholar of government styles, but it seems like a non-free market to me.