By Warner Todd Huston ——Bio and Archives--May 26, 2015
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The American military budget is massive. At $610 billion, it dwarfs the combined military budgets of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, the UK, India and Germany (see chart below). Put another way, one third of all military spending the world comes from the United States. The problem is, however, that the American military budget may be crowding out other crucial investment As the era of American hegemony winds down, it’s more important than ever for America to be able to demonstrate soft power. That means first, an American model that works, for other countries to emulate. But further, it means a highly educated population, long-term investment in infrastructure, adequate healthcare, an society based, above all else, on opportunity. However, it’s likely that the military budget precludes these important services. The most important cost of our bloated military budget is investment in other important government functions. As the chart below from CBO shows, defense spending has historically consumed more than half of the entire U.S. government discretionary budget (spending on veterans eats up mandatory spending as well). In 2014, discretionary defense spending was double Medicaid spending, and about equal to Medicare spending. Given that the U.S. is already a relatively low-spending country, the military only further diminishes our meager safety net.Again, unlike our military budget, notice that our “meager safety net” is not Constitutionally mandated spending. Further, what sort of “safety net” can we have if we can’t even prevent enemies from destroying the country? One might think that the first thread in any “safety net” is the ability to protect our country militarily! But that isn’t how the anti-American fools at Salon.com see it. They feel that government is our mommy and daddy and a good liberal mommy and daddy would never let their children play army. Just one more example of why the only feeling a true American should be able to muster for liberalism is contempt. But when all is said and done, even their premise is a lie. Contrary to the lies promulgated by the left, the military is not the biggest spending item. Defense spending is only about 18 percent of the federal budget while fully 70 percent of the budget is used for Social Security, Medicare, and the other “safety net” items.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as Breitbart.com, among many, many others. He has also written for several history magazines, has appeared on numerous TV and radio shows.
He is also the owner and operator of Publius’ Forum.