Essay Defense Spending

The Department of Defense (DOD) reports that the United States spent about $168 billion (worth around

Something that I vehemently disagree on with both political parties is defense spending. In their platforms, both parties seem to favor an increase in funding, even if it is a bit more discretely worded under the Democratic Party’s platform. In my view, we allocate too much of our country’s resources to the military, and neglect many of its other needs in doing so. The United States military is by far and away the most puissant armed organization in the world. Here are some figures that help illustrate just how pragmatic that last statement is. In the 2015 fiscal year we spent 598 billion dollars on the military; that’s over fifty percent of the federal government’s discretionary spending.(1) In 2016, only 19 of 194 nations had a higher GDP than America’s defense budget; that means that the U.S. spends more money per year on its military than the total value of all goods produced and services provided in a country in a year in 90 percent of the world’s nations.(2) According to 2016 statistics the U.S. spends more on its defense than the next eight countries combined.(3) That same year, China was second with a 215 billion dollar defense budget and Russia was third at approximately 69 billion.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are winding down and that will help lower the defense spending by almost $1 trillion over the next decade. The congress is realizing that they need to do some restructuring and have already begun rearranging the military budget in response to austerity. Congress conjured up a $630 billion defense appropriations bill that made plans to reduce civilian and contractor personnel by 5 percent over the next five years and in return ramp up advanced weapons programs, including drones, bombers and missiles says The Washington Post. The American Conservative

The United States has a debt of $16.394 trillion and had spent $682 billion in 2012. Also the pentagon had also spent $2.7 trillion and has no trace of where or how it could have been used by the military. The amount spent is unnecessary because being the policemen of the world is not helping fix any of the issues the policemen’s own country has.

The United States spends far more than any other country on defense and security with no end in sight to their expenditures. The total military spending by the United States is nearly equal to the combined military spending of every other nation combined. This unreasonable amount of spending hinders the capacity to provide basic needs, as well as eliminating money that can be used to resolve other domestic issues, while at the same time allowing for short-term economic prosperity and increasing our national defense capacity.

Federal spending is a controversial topic due especially to the growing budget deficit. Millions of American citizens pay taxes each year helping to fund the Federal Budget. Although American citizens’ tax dollars are spent by the Federal Budget, how the resources are divided and spent are not always a proper reflection of how society wants the resources to be allocated. In 2013, Washington spent nearly $3.5 trillion, while only collecting $2.8 in revenue, adding billions to the budget deficit. Where do these tax dollars go? Approximately, 23% was spent on health care such as Medicare, 22% on Social Security, 19% on national defense, 19% on

The United States is spending huge amounts of money on military defense when there are other problem areas in our society that are in need of more funding.

The historical federal spending of the government has already done significant damage to America; spending habits have increased the federal budget deficit at alarming rates adding $2.7 trillion to the national debt in two years, $1.4 trillion in the 2009 fiscal year and $1.3 trillion in 2010. (Montgomery)   These deficits are largely caused by increases in spending rates. The current Obama Administration has used the recession in their favor to expand both the government and spending.

The United States of America’s defense budget is accounted for by the spending for the Department of Defense. All the funding directed to the Department of Defense covers its base budget through payment of the department 's normal activities (National Priorities). Most presidential candidates support the idea of the United States of America developing a bigger military force or at least leaving it as big as it currently is, except most notably Berny Sanders. The United States of America currently stands at a $494 billion-dollar deficit (US Debt Clock) and many politicians want to reduce this deficit by cutting down budget or enforcing a balanced budget amendment. Berny Sanders has for years and still at the moment still criticizing politicians who have such ideas which he terms as regressive. Berny Sanders argues that the federal defense spending and military budget are three times larger than that of the second biggest spender: China. He further argues that even among military members, many believe that

The distribution of federal government spending is interesting and questionable, “In fiscal year 2015, the federal budget is $3.8 trillion. These trillions of dollars make up about 21 percent of the U.S. economy (as measured by Gross Domestic Product, or GDP). It's also about $12,000 for every woman, man and child in the United States.” (@natpriorities). The question remains, where does all the money go?

Increasing defense spending is a must not only to defend our borders but also to assure a leading position in world affairs. President Bush has proposed a $379.9 billon budget for the Department of Defense (DoD), a $15.3 billion increase. The President plans to boost military pay, housing, training, intelligence, and technology. By adding pay and supplying better living quarters to those marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors enhance morale and allows the further experienced to stay in for a longer time.

Costs related to increases in defense spending and homeland security along with funding the conflicts themselves mushroomed. Defense spending increased from 3.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2001 to 5.7 percent of the GDP in 2011 (U.S. Defense). The United States government borrowed the money to finance these measures which in 2011 amounted to over one-quarter of the increase in the United States’s national debt since 2001 (Bilmes). These numbers are particularly disturbing given that in 2001 the U.S. government showed a $127 billion dollar surplus followed by a deficit of $158 billion dollars in 2002 (Greenspan 233). Laws passed after 9/11 projected necessary increases for homeland security and defense, but did not follow traditional budgetary procedures. The Budget Enforcement Act of 1990, which played an important role in reducing the federal deficit, was largely ignored (Greenspan

The Federal budget deficit is the amount of spending by the Federal government that is in excess of how much money the government brings in annually. While the Federal budget deficit has steadily decreased overall during the past fifteen years, our Federal debt continues to grow at a drastic rate. A review of how the Federal deficit has evolved over the past fifteen years, the rate of growth of the Federal debt during that same period, and how the two are connected will better explain this phenomenon.

I found it an interesting article called Cost of War. According to this article, “the important impact of federal spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been to raise the nation’s indebtedness.” Moreover, the increased military spending following September 11 was financed almost entirely by borrowing. Rising deficits have resulted in higher debt, a higher debt-to-GDP ratio, and higher interest rates. Moreover, this article claims, “A good indicator of the sustainability of government spending is the ratio of federal debt held by the public to national income, or gross domestic product (GDP). This ratio increased by almost 37 percentage points between 2001 and 2011.” Finally this article make a comparison between the war

In an effort to reinvest in the economy and create more jobs, the government is putting money back into our economy. This shows a shift back to “butter.” Now that the war is somewhat done with, spending will shift from defense to other things like education, healthcare, and the overall economy.