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This is totally wrong. The defense budget is much less than social security and Medicare.
by akvadrako 8y ago
This is totally wrong. The defense budget is much less than social security and Medicare.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- archgoon 8y agoThe parent (akvadrako) is correct. For 2017 the budgets were: Social Security was $939 billion. Medicare was $591 billion. Medicaid was $353 billion. The defense budget was $590 billion. So Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security together are about 3 times larger than the Defense budget. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:CBO_Infographic_2017.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expenditures_in_the_United_Sta...
- aey 8y agoThat is a bit misleading. Social security is distributed back to everyone. Although higher income earners pay more than what they get out. https://www.nasi.org/learn/socialsecurity/benefits-compare-earnings https://www.nasi.org/learn/socialsecurity/benefits-compare-e...
- jandrewrogers 8y agoPaying Social Security taxes does not entitle anyone to receive future benefit. Per the US Supreme Court (1960), Social Security taxes are no different than any other income tax. This is not a theoretical distinction, as the US can and has denied Social Security benefits to Americans that have paid Social Security taxes for arbitrary reasons. The Supreme Court ruling was based on one such case.
- aey 8y agoWhat percentage of the 900 billion per year has been denied?
- akvadrako 8y agoWhy does that matter? It functions just like a regressive tax and social program. It still contributes to the deficit and is money the government needs to take out of the economy.
- aey 8y agoIt’s money redistributed between consumers (progressively). Presumably the consumers will spend it on things they need, and capitalists will try to squeeze out a profit. Unlike bullets and bombs, which is money burned. And unlike Medicaid, which is money taken from consumers and spend specially on medical services. Which consumers may or may not need. Hence all the insurance fraud.
- rayiner 8y agoAnd that’s not counting the more than $3 trillion spent by state and local governments, which are all for social services and infrastructure.