The world's largest military budgets:

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

[MadDAsHell]

1. I'm sick of people thinking we need to "lead the world" period.

It's incredibly ethnocentric and racist.

[George II]

2. Don't look now, but I believe BS voted for every penny of that $700 billion.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Really?

Sanders Votes Against Increasing Defense Spending
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
WASHINGTON, Nov. 10 – Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement today after voting against a bill that increases the level of authorized funding for the Pentagon and other national security agencies by $21 billion in 2016.

“If we are serious about ending waste, fraud, abuse and excessive spending, we have got to focus on all agencies – including the Department of Defense. This bloated Pentagon budget continues to pour money into outdated weapons systems that don’t function properly. The Department of Defense is the only federal agency that cannot pass a clean audit. Many of its major acquisition programs suffer from chronic cost overruns. Virtually every defense contractor has been found guilty or has reached a settlement with the government because of fraudulent and illegal activities. This has got to change.”

https://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sanders-votes-against-increasing-defense-spending

In a late afternoon vote that garnered very little attention in the corporate media—and predictably didn't spark any of the handwringing about costs that pundits typically apply to social programs for the poor and working class—40 Democrats and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) joined nearly every Senate Republican on Wednesday to send a $717 billion military spending bill to President Donald Trump's desk.

(snip)

"Not one op-ed or editorial or talking head on cable news will ask 'how will we pay for it?'" media analyst Adam Johnson noted following the Senate's vote. "Funding for bombs, guns, military bases, warships, fighter jets is simply factored in. Like gravity or entropy, it just is."

Overall, the 2019 NDAA will hike military spending by $82 billion. The Intercept's Alex Emmons has noted that with $80 billion a year, you could make public colleges and universities in the U.S. tuition-free."

Here are the ten senators who voted against the spending measure: Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Lee (R-Utah.), and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

(snip)

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/08/02/40-senate-democrats-join-gop-send-717-billion-military-spending-bill-trumps-desk

[George II]

4. That was one of those "it would have passed anyway" votes. But now we agree that BS....

.....doesn't ALWAYS vote with the majority of Democrats, right?

[Uncle Joe]

7. No one ever said Bernie ALWAYS

voted with the majority of Democrats but as of 1997 he voted with them more often 95% of the time than the average Democrat in Congress 80%.

(snip)

By 1997, Sanders was still not a member of the House Democratic Caucus nor a Democrat. But he voted with the party more often than the average Democrat (95 percent of the time opposed to 80 percent). Keeping good to their promise, Democratic leadership gave Sanders a subcommittee chairmanship over a freshman Democrat.

When he ran for the Senate a decade later in 2006, still as an independent, the party worked to stop Democratic candidates from running against him, and he was endorsed by numerous state and national Democrats.

(snip)

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2016/feb/23/bernie-sanders-democrat/

However, you did just state on post #2

"Don't look now, but I believe BS voted for every penny of that $700 billion."

and you were wrong.

[IronLionZion]

5. Other countries are leading on many issues to address climate change

by using renewable energies, alternative fuels, conservation efforts, reforestation, family planning, etc.

America made a choice decades ago to lead on weapons and war. If we want different priorities for our tax dollars, we should elect different legislators and politicians, and reduce the influence of weapons makers.

[Uncle Joe]

12. I agree IronLionZion

[lapfog_1]

6. if all of those countries

promised to not go to war for 10 years... and they each gave 25% of their military budget to fight climate change... for 10 years...

That would be 3077 billion dollars...

Now a decent 3KW solar rooftop system in the US costs around $25K, so this is enough for 123 Million rooftop solar installations... around the world. With the cost going down due to quantity... probably more like 250 Million homes. That's enough energy to cover the home and vehicle electric use of over a billion people.

A good start... but we need 4 times that amount. Plus efficient storage and a decentralized grid for power sharing.

[DavidDvorkin]

8. That would be even more striking if it were per capita.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Here is per capita

Military expenditure per capita spending
Rank Country Amount USD$
1 Saudi Arabia 2,013.3
2 United States 1,985.5
3 Israel 1,886.6
4 Singapore 1,871.8
5 Kuwait 1,738.4
6 Oman 1,389.3
7 Norway 1,320.1
8 Australia 1,078.3
9 France 978.0
10 Bahrain 891.4
11 South Korea 841.8
11 Brunei 798.5
13 United Kingdom 751.0
14 Denmark 734.8
15 Luxembourg 710.4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditure_per_capita

Russia and China don't even make the top 15

Saudi Arabia with a very sparse population and sitting on an ocean of oil comes in at number 1.

[DavidDvorkin]

10. That's fascinating

I'm surprised by Singapore, but not entirely by the others.

Thanks.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Singapore has a lot oil as well and they only have a little over 5.6 million citizens.

The petroleum industry in Singapore is accountable for part of the country's economy, exporting about 68,100,000 tonnes (67,000,000 long tons; 75,100,000 short tons) of oil (as of 2007). Singapore is dubbed "the undisputed oil hub in Asia."

(snip)

Singapore is described as "the undisputed oil hub in Asia". The oil industry is responsible for some five percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).[1] It generated an estimated S$57 billion dollars in 2009. Technology used for oil refinement and trading centres in Singapore is on the cutting edge, and many well-established petroleum businesses, such as Exxon Mobil and Lanxess, are based in Singapore, owing to the country's "safe environment" and ideal trading location.[2]

As a global financial hub, Singapore provides for 25 per cent to 35 per cent of commodities trading in Asia, according to International Enterprise Singapore, a government agency. It is also Asia’s largest physical oil trading hub. Additionally, it is home to the world’s largest bunkering port and the world's two largest oil rig builders SembCorp Marine and Keppel Corporation.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_industry_in_Singapore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore

[JI7]

13. how much and where would he make the cuts ?

[Uncle Joe]

14. I believe nuclear weapons and endless wars to begin with

(snip)

"Today, we say to the military-industrial-complex that we will not continue to spend $700 billion a year on the military — more than the next 10 nations combined," the White House hopeful told the crowd. "We're going to invest in affordable housing, we're going to invest in public education, we're going to invest in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure — not more nuclear weapons and never-ending wars."

(snip)

https://www.businessinsider.com/bernie-sanders-promises-to-cut-and-reinvest-us-defense-spending-2019-3

and a more in-depth listing of Bernie's views in regards to the military, veterans and spending priorities.

https://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-military-and-veterans/#the-role-of-the-united-states-military

[BlueMississippi]

15. F35s anyone? nt

[Joe941]

16. A great observation by Bernie!

[Uncle Joe]

17. I agree Joe,

the possibility of most profound changes for the better.