4 ms·
There's the phrase: "show me your budget and I'll tell you what your priorities are", look at the federal budget and you'll see that the US "priorities" are rea
by 40acres 8y ago
There's the phrase: "show me your budget and I'll tell you what your priorities are", look at the federal budget and you'll see that the US "priorities" are really focused on two things. Maintaining our military and supporting social programs.
The Trump administration is negotiating a deal with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan, at the end of the day it will have cost us over 2,000 American lives and 2 Trillion dollars. Imagine if instead we committed 2 trillion dollars to create a 21st century infrastructure? How much dividend would that pay off as compared to this war in which we gained nothing? I highly doubt 2,000 workers would've died in the process.
Tackling the military budget is such a political football though, I understand the geopolitical needs to have such a global military, maintain bases, project force, and be at the forefront of military tech. But I wonder when American's will turn an eye and say "hey, why are we spending so much on war when we need programs at home"? As the nation gets older, inequality rises and growth maintains is sluggish pace, the American government will need to take a larger role in facilitating growth. In my opinion de-funding social programs is an absolute nonstarter, the military approaches the same position but I believe are more at risk. Time will come where the Pentagon will need to defend it's budget, especially if you get a future president on the extremes of either party.
- andrewmcwatters 8y agoI used to believe these lies until I actually bothered to take a look at the federal budget: https://datalab.usaspending.gov/budget-function.html https://datalab.usaspending.gov/budget-function.html Could we spend less on military? Oh for sure, but the idea that we spend more on military than anything else is absolute bullshit.
- 40acres 8y agoI never said we spend more on the military than anything else, and the budget you provided just helps to make my point clear. The main hitters of the budget are all social services that are politically impossible to cut. The top non service line items are the VA and defense.
- treis 8y agoThere's something funky going on with that chart. Military spending is about 20% of the budget when you include Veterans benefits. You're right that it's smaller than the ~50% spent on SS and Meciare/Medicaid, but after those it's by far the biggest budget item.
- justin66 8y agoWe did not go from 700 billion to 50 billion spent on the military from 2017 to 2018, so yes, that chart (and the associated data) is bullshit. There are a ton of technicalities involved in government budgeting and accounting though. It's just not a chart you'd want to share to make an honest point in a conversation like this.
- thegranderson 8y agoThis budget for FY18 looks completely incorrect - where is the $500b+ of defense spending?? It shows up in their FY17 budget, but has shrunk by 10x in FY18. Try USA Facts for a more accurate, if older, view: https://usafacts.org/government-finances/spending?comparison=by_government_type&government_type=combined&table=spending--by-mission&year=2016 https://usafacts.org/government-finances/spending?comparison...