Pie chart: Allocation of tax distribution in 2009

Military spending by country in 2008

:thumbsup:

:shrug:

It is time to end the madness, all of it. It is time. Past time. Long over due. Time for real change.

Really, why are we so jingoistic? Why do we need to own the world? Why do we need to overkill?

It's really insane. It's bizarre in that Twilight Zone way of grotesque thinking.

military spending.

Other things contributed, but that was the lynch pin.

Soviet inefficient economy couldn't sustain those levels of spending.

link:
www.nytimes.com/1992/11/22/opinion/l-inefficient-soviet-economy-halted-cold-war-088792.html?n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/U/United%20States%20International%20Relations

bankers, the health insurers and now we are going to tell the MIC that they have to step down? We need power. We need Democratic leaders who are willing to put their necks on the line like the founding fathers/mothers did and give it everything they have.

I am really down today and the future does not look like something I can believe in. I think the only thing that may end this madness is oil depletion. We the people do not seem to sense the danger that confronts us.

Military spending is obscene. I'm sick of the right wing bitching and moaning about welfare. The real welfare queens are the defense contractors and bank CEOs.

He is looking to cuts, weaponry, etc.

I see no evidence of any reduction in military spending. While Iraq is *theoretically* winding down, Afghanistan is winding up, the net here is no change.

Misread the graph.

"Obama proposal: The budget calls for $205.5 billion in war costs for Iraq and Afghanistan over the next year and a half, including $75.5 billion more this year and $130 billion for fiscal 2010. Those costs are included in the overall budget for the first time. The budget includes a 4% increase to $533.7 billion for the Defense Department.

Context: War spending would continue at a rate of roughly $11 billion a month for the next 18 months, even as the administration plans to dramatically reduce troop levels in Iraq. Specifics about spending on weapons and other programs won't be available until the full budget is released in April."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-02-26-budget-side_N.htm

Year over year, a 4% increase in military spending. That is not 'a cut'.

Change I Have to Have Faith To Believe In 'Cause I Sure Can't See It.

I misread the heading on the second graph.

We've failed you. :cry:

My bad.

are these charts are NEVER shown on TV or in congress. Our country is a disgrace.

This is grassroots. DUers do a very good job of being informed, and we do it through personal initiative by searching for the answers just as much as by waiting to be shown anything by a media that keeps doing an underwhelming job.

Weird though, the rest of the world must be spending more on their militaries than in the past. Used to be the US spent MORE than the rest of the world combined.
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Are we a has-been yet? :sarcasm:

Leaving Iraq out of the equation, we have always spent a lot of money protecting other countries and training their officers. For example, South Korea probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for our military presence there.

We aren't even getting what we pay for!

This is coming from a veteran's wife. In other words, our enlisted men and women are not exactly living it up. We can't even take care of our wounded soldiers properly.

Bush told the rest of us to go shopping, then he lowered combat pay and systematically took away all kinds of military benefits. I remember military families going on welfare and not being able to afford housing at the same time the soldiers were being deployed.

It makes me really sick. Then the stop loss crap! And the sneaking the fallen in the middle of the night so no one would think about them.

This country has it's head on ass-backwards

Great information! But there is another question nobody is asking. Does this mean that the Iraq/Afghan War spending is now all "on-budget"? Bush had all Iraq-Afghan War spending "off-budget". Easier to funnel funds to cronies, I guess. Little to no oversight. Anybody know?

If we don't address it this year, we probably never will.

Any more questions about what ruined the US economy?

They'd rather play war and kill people than have healthy people here.

Plus we need those fighter droids. Soon someone in a bunker in Washington D.C. will be able to pick off a fighter 10,000 miles away with his robot. Or a protester in New York City.

<snip>
America's Robot Army: Are Unmanned Fighters Ready for Combat?

Customer: U.S. Army ordered more than 1700 for 15 brigades, a potential human-to-robot ratio of 29:1 | Deployment: Ready for combat as early as 2014 | Models: Half will be armed; the rest will clear minefields and haul gear | Cargo capability: 1800 to 2000 pounds | Weapons: Four antitank Javelin missiles and a turret-mounted M240 machine gun. (Photograph by Chad Hunt)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)">List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)

I think our new President is up to the task and I know that he is intent on reducing this disproportionate spending on defense.

This ain't gonna end well.

And I would bet this doesn't include all of the Black Hole Projects spending that currently takes place. As bad as these pie charts are they are definitely swayed toward the right..A lot of stuff is just ignored in these.

(If I screwed up the math somewhere point it out, still early for me on a Sunday)

If you make 40k/a year your fed tax should be 4300 ( http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080614231817AAixrrg )

From another DU post w/pie chart ( http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5347680 )

$4300 you pay - 55.43% allocation of taxes for defense spending/interest on military debt
= $2383.49

40k/yr is 19.23/hr
123.95 hours you worked to pay for military
A tad over 3 weeks

you'd think we would that paid off by now

:-)

Actually once it was implemented they just never could pull the trigger to get rid of it. Telephone tax goes up every time we are at war.

I am not sure who brought the suit that made the telephone tax deductible last year but I think it was the libertarian sect, but I am not sure

The real problem is those earmarks for volcano monitoring!

Never hear it mentioned.

we took 50% of that money and man-power and invested it ALL in energy research and development and improving energy efficiency in this country! or in a national health care plan....or in education by making a publicly funded university education a right of any citizen willing to attend a 4 year college or university...or fuck it...we could just put all that money in a huge pile, set fire to it and use the generated heat to power a few turbines for a few months!

I am BEGGING President Obama to call the bluff of every Republican hack screaming about fiscal responsibility by proposing budget cuts on a dollar for dollar basis of matching withdraws from defense spending - starting with an immediate end to the "wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan and a troop removal timetable of no more than 12 months effective as soon as he can sign his name to it...for any social spending program that they wish to cut, we start by cutting an equal amount from the military spending by re-appropriating the money and associated manpower (and jobs) into national infrastructure improvements - and NOT just repaving roads either...I am talking about high-speed rail between all top-50 USA cities and a minimum of intra-city public transportation for all cities over 500,000 people as well!

We MUST stop wasting money on things that make us no safer than anyone else and on weapons systems so horrific that were they ever actually used it would mean the end for 90% of all humans anyway!!! That's NOT defense...its damn right offensive and must end...