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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDefense consultant: "You will definitely need some sort of new threat in order for" Pentagon budget
If the sequester goes into effect on January 1st, we will see over time a $500 billion reduction in security spending (which includes the Pentagon and State Department).
Defense lobbyists are increasingly worried about these cuts. In Politico this morning, one defense consultant said that wed need you will definitely need some sort of new threat in order for the downward trend in defense spending to stop.
But Americans should not fear a significant reduction in military spending. Remember that Pentagon spending is the largest portion of discretionary spending, and that the United States spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined.
Read more: http://boldprogressives.org/bipartisan-military-experts-actually-want-twice-the-level-of-defense-cuts-that-are-in-the-sequester/
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)Arooooo-ga! Arooooo-ga! What will it be this time?
SalviaBlue
(2,918 posts)liberal N proud
(60,346 posts)The military industrial complex in this country is a very dangerous thing.
formercia
(18,479 posts)"You can take that to the Bank." as Junior once said.
byeya
(2,842 posts)realized that only by keeping the population in continual fright would they - those who control the political economy - be able to get more than their fair share of the wealth. It's been more difficult since the USSR broke apart but they've managed to do it to us and things are more unbalanced than ever and the media is more in the pocket of the wealthy and power hungry then ever.
(Right after the bombs fell on the two cities in Japan, several major dailies in the USA published a map of how such blasts would affect Moscow. The bomb's destruction was superimposed over a map of our ally, the USSR)
Don't forget that one of the largest public demonstrations in Times Square took place to celebrate the fall of Paris to the Nazis.
Rex
(65,616 posts)blood money for these parasites?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)That should bring in China & maybe Russia, & should keep the game going for another 3 decades at least.
Rex
(65,616 posts)All those trillions wasted on nuclear duds. They pine for the Cold War days.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)A HERETIC I AM
(24,380 posts)The Money we spend on war making capability is the monster that can just not be satisfied.
I've said this before, but why, oh WHY won't the right wing just fucking ADMIT that defense spending is just a giant jobs program?
Because that's what it is.
ProfessorGAC
(65,227 posts)Of course, you know the answer will be "the rate of increase has slowed". Which of course, it should have slowed long ago. It should be going down not just going up by the change in the value of money.
Even with the argument we both know we'll hear, there is no reason for the budget to be that high. The tricky part is that we have tied the expenditure to the private sector (defense contractors) into GDP so tightly that cuts there will have a negative macroeconomic impact.
Maybe not a great thing, but more survivable than spending defense money on materiel we don't need.
GAC