54% of omnibus budget is military spending

[angrychair]

$700 billion dollars. We plan to spend 4 times more than the the #2 military spender China.

We plan to spend more than the next 21 countries COMBINED (2017 numbers) of which 18 are allies and friends and of which the US is the primary source of that military hardware.

This is ridiculous!

Source: https://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp

[spanone]

1. that's 700 BILLION

[Fred Sanders]

3. Obscene, isn't it? And barely a mention in MSM of the fake news of the

American military being "weak", along with the mention of the real news: the military is HUGE and unbelievably strong.

A budget of 700 billion American greenbacks will do that!

Whole thing is obscenity.

[FarCenter]

7. Maybe the military is HUGE and unbelievably weak - think Maginot Line

[Fred Sanders]

20. Sarcasm??

[FarCenter]

39. At one time I worked with engineers to transferred to commercial work after a major DoD program cut

No sensitivity to manufacturability, cost or affordability. No focus on simplicity of operation and maintenance. No attention to long term reliability and durability.

Everything was about technical sophistication and initial performance under ideal conditions.

$100s of billions are being squandered on weapons systems which may or may not be useful in future asymmetric conflicts.

[spanone]

10. "We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined." Barack Obama

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jan/13/barack-obama/obama-us-spends-more-military-next-8-nations-combi/

[angrychair]

12. I did the math from that source site

It is definitely 21 nations combined....I included my reference source

[oberliner]

17. Let's not pretend this is something new

Same percentage under President Obama in 2015.

[Fred Sanders]

21. Who is pretending? The massive military has politicians by the nuts! Campaign

contributions do not come without payback

And I recall Obama at least trying to curtail military spending, not trying to pretend it was not enough.

Obama Defence Freeze, 2011

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. But taking a shot at Obama, who could pass that up?

[Fred Sanders]

41. Except the shot was fired and missed again, as my chart proves.

Notice the chart says "Carter's age of neglect", when he realized the military spending was a monster...hard to get neutral info., but the chart is correct without the commentary in it.

[LanternWaste]

23. Who is arguing it's pretense?

Who is arguing it's pretense?

[oberliner]

30. Badly stated on my part

You are right to point out that no one is arguing that.

I just wanted to re-emphasize that this is a problem that spans many administrations and decades, but I guess that is stating the obvious for folks here - but maybe a few were unaware of the historical nature of our defense spending.

[John Fante]

35. You were deflecting blame from Trump. Period, end of.

[John Fante]

33. Some people make a concerted effort to defend Trump at all costs.

[angrychair]

32. True but with a republican congress

That said, every state in the union feeds on the defense budget and uses it as a jobs program which is draining our budget and crushing our ability to take care of our own citizens.

[angrychair]

4. ROFL

I changed it...thank you for the catch!

[spanone]

8. the military would laugh at 700m....!

[Freddie]

2. It's a jobs program for red states

Where most bases are located. Most enlistees are from red states too.

[hack89]

14. Not true - many blue states like California get 10s of billions in defense spending.

here is a breakdown:

http://www.ncsl.org/research/military-and-veterans-affairs/military-s-impact-on-state-economies.aspx

Defense spending is huge for Rhode Island and Connecticut. Besides bases, we have large DoD research labs and a large work force building submarines.

[LanternWaste]

24. Your link does not support the original qualifier "most" which you replaced with "many."

Your link does not support the original qualifier "most" which you replaced with "many."

[hack89]

25. Ok. So?

it is not a "red state job program." My only point.

[TheDebbieDee]

5. The Department of Defense is the EASIEST

federal agency to defraud through purchasing & contracting...

The conservative propensity to call for US military intervention, sending troops here and there, gives Congress an excuse to beef up the defense budget to replace bullets, tanks, aircraft, etc., and in return, allows members of Congress and Senate to receive kick-backs from defense contractors...

[Stallion]

6. Military Parades Ain't Cheap

[beachbum bob]

9. elections have ramifications....

so we have to wait until nov 2018 and nov 2020 to provide the antidote

[oberliner]

16. It was the same percentage in 2015, under Obama

Let's not pretend this is something new.

[Demsrule86]

37. Are you bashing Obama? May I remind you that we lost the Senate in 14, and he had little choice.

They would have used the debt limit...can you imagine what would happen if we breached the debt limit? We only got this bill which took the debt limit off the table until 17 because Boehner was leaving. It was an achievement for the president. So lets not 'pretend' that President Obama is anything like Trump or that the party's are the same which is implied in your post.

"The bill suspends the debt limit until March 15, 2017, basically enabling the government to borrow the money it needs to pay off existing U.S. debt — and kicking the issue into the next presidency.

Senate approves two-year budget deal that prevents default on debt

Some House Republicans had proposed the former debt limit — which was set to expire Tuesday — to leverage more spending cuts from the administration.

Outgoing House speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, put together a plan to avoid breaching the debt limit, saying that doing so would threaten the nation's credit rating."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/11/02/obama-budget-bill-debt-ceiling/75039370/

[poboy2]

11. And this is before that 'COMING ARMS RACE" our boy dropped. -nt

[RainCaster]

13. The GOP is funding the NRA every way possible

Putin said we should do that

[oberliner]

15. Same percentage as 2015

In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/

[angrychair]

18. Its an indefensible level of spending

The majority of that is operational, it’s not even for R&D or development.

[oberliner]

19. Absolutely crazy

And a problem that has been ongoing for many many years.

[Tatiana]

22. Which is really Republican military industrial complex welfare.

It's disgusting.

Yet they want to eliminate social security and medicare and leave our seniors to eat cat food.

These people are pure evil.

[Eliot Rosewater]

29. If Obama could have done something about it, he would have.

[John Fante]

36. The fact that Obama was saddled with a GOP house

for 6 of his 8 years in office (not to mention a brutal recession and recovery) seems to be lost on the Trump apologists on this board

[shanny]

26. Oh well--that's an improvement!

Used to be 57%.



eta:
Of course, that is "only" the Defense Dept. budget. It doesn't include the Dept of Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and the Dept of Energy, most of which is for the nukes. Add those in and we're at a trillion dollars per year, not a lousy 700 billion.

[rzemanfl]

28. But we get invisible airplanes. Plus tankers that are "like everything" or some such shit. n/t

[PaulX2]

31. The Oligarchs Need Paid

Now don't they....

[Demsrule86]

34. We ended sequestration and got some good stuff too. We could not shut the government down.

[workinclasszero]

38. Complete insanity, as bad as giving a budget busting tax cut to billionaires

This is why the average american cannot have a good life anymore in many cases.

[onethatcares]

40. we have two political systems

trumps and putins stealing from the citizens and eating caviar (plastic forks included) and drink fine wine.

Dwight D was right in his farewell address.