Hey so if you guys could read my paper and help me out a bit by giving some contructive criticism that would be wonderful. +K
All countries spend large amounts on their military to defend their countries interests and police their nation and the world. The US has been the world’s police force for many years. It keeps this up by having the largest defense budget of any nation. In fact if we combined all the other nations’ defense budget into one, the US defense budget would be 43% of total world defense spending. (Brannen) This is an astounding fact and important in our understanding of where our federal tax dollars go to. In our world today the US spends more than all other countries combined on defense and a huge portion of our taxes go to defense. Defense spending is one of the major reasons for our federal debt and should be cut down dramatically.
The USA hit a low point of military spending in 1998 at 361.5 billion. That year has been heralded as the post-Cold War “peace dividend” and over the next decade, Pentagon spending rose by more than 90%. (Conetta 1). The government authorized $6.5 trillion during the period 1999-2010. Of this $2.15 trillion was above the level set in 1998. Furthermore only half of these added funds are attributable to America’s recent wars and counter-terrorism operations abroad. All this spending dwarfs the cost of recent US bank bailouts, stimulus packages, and health care reforms. (Conetta 1) Furthermore this marks only the beginning. The United States total budget for fiscal year 2011 was $3.69 trillion (approximately 2.44 trillion of which is mandatory spending on social security, Medicaid, etc) (Carter). About 60% of the discretionary budget spending of the whole government is for the military (national priorities). The Obama administration plans to spend at least $5 trillion on defense during 2010-2017, which is 5% more than the Bush administration authorized for 2002-2009. The reality is that the US defense spending is stabilizing at level significantly above Cold War Peaks (adjusted for inflation) and far above the Cold War average. (Conetta 2)
World military expenditure in 2010 is estimated to have reached $1.62 trillion. This represents a 1.3% increase since 2009 and a 50% increase since 2001. The USA with its massive spending budget is the principal determinant of the current world trend. Its military expenditure now accounts for 43% of the world total. (Shah 1) The US spends approximately 5% GDP on Defense. This isn’t significantly higher than other countries. In the top 10 highest defense budgets most are between 2-3% of GDP, the low being 1% for Japan, and the high 11.2% for Saudi Arabia (second highest is US). But considering that our GDP is huge compared to other countries, our military spending is out of control (Wikipedia). The US is also the second highest in military expenditures per capita at about $2,500.
All of these statistics show that our military spending is out of control. To curb our debt, help our economy recover and proper, and to not place undo hardships on future generations we as a nation must streamline our military and cut its spending dramatically. Efforts to cut spending have started dramatically in recent years. In January of 2011 Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced that $178 billion would be cut from the defense budget over the next five years. Although in Gates proposal the DOD’s budget will continue to grow, it will do so at less than the inflation rate which signifies an overall reduction. Furthermore as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down the Defense budget will drop and be put under more severe pressure as Americans start to wonder where they’re tax money is going. (Olson 2) Obama has also said that he plans to reduce spending by $400 billion by 2020. Furthermore there has been bipartisan support for reducing military spending. One effort, led by Republican Pete Domenici and former Clinton White House budget director Alice Rivlin, proposes freezing defense spending at fiscal 2011 levels, saving $1.1 trillion through 2020. (Brannen) All of these changes aim to reduce the deficit by cutting programs across the board.
The direction we are moving in at the moment is the right one but it must be upscaled dramatically to save our economy. Over the next few years, as attention continues to focus on deficit reduction, the entire budget will come under increased pressure. At 19 percent of US federal spending and about 56 percent of discretionary spending, the defense budget is unlikely to escape at least some of the spotlight. Whether or not one agrees with such scrutiny, the fact is that in a time of intense economic pressure, the really tough choices have yet to be made. “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes … known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.… No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare” (James Madison)
Sources + Bibliography
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_BwgW8WFk
