On the War Path: The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
do you feel more secure now?
Published on Tuesday, May 22, 2012 by TomDispatch.com - by Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer
Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called threats) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.
Here, then, is a simple question that, for some curious reason, no one bothers to ask, no less answer: How much are we spending on national security these days? With major wars winding down, has Washington already cut such spending so close to the bone that further reductions would be perilous to our safety?
In fact, with projected cuts added in, the national security budget in fiscal 2013 will be nearly $1 trillion -- a staggering enough sum that its worth taking a walk through the maze of the national security budget to see just where that moneys lodged.
If youve heard a number for how much the U.S. spends on the military, its probably in the neighborhood of $530 billion. Thats the Pentagons base budget for fiscal 2013, and represents a 2.5% cut from 2012. But that $530 billion is merely the beginning of what the U.S. spends on national security. Lets dig a little deeper.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/22-3
phantom power
(25,966 posts)while the 99% slipped into poverty, and children went to underfunded schools, and senior citizens turned to catfood.
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)think
(11,641 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)...while tax paying citizens suffer cuts, austerity, and deprivation at home,
is a primary symptom of Empires in Decline.
Thank you for this link.
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
[font size=5 color=green]Solidarity99![/font][font size=2 color=green]
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