I’ve frequently said, “We don’t have a spending problem, we have a revenue problem.” That is true as long as you are talking about domestic spending. Domestic programs from food safety inspections to college loan guarantees are cut to the bone. “Entitlements” such as Social security add nothing to the debt and could easily be self-sustaining well into the future with modest revenue side reforms. However, if you talking about the US budget in its entirety, the wingnuts are right. We do have a spending problem. We have a pretty big fucking spending problem.
The U.S. spends more on the military than the next 14 countries combined and vastly more than any possible enemies: roughly 5 times more than China, 10 times more than Russia, and 95 times more than Iran. The United States and its strongest allies (the NATO countries, Japan, South Korea, and Australia) together spend about $1.2 trillion on their militaries, representing 70 percent of the world’s total.
Does anyone think that we are getting a good return on our defense spending dollars?
Do we really need to be spending $113.7 billion a year in Afghanistan?
Do we need a bloated officer corp?
Do we need to be paying $250,000 per year to unaccountable mercenaries?
Do we need weapons spending boondoggles like the V-22 Osprey, Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, F-35 Joint Strike Fighter – that only serve to protect that profits of defense contractors?
I’d love for the “fiscal conservatives” in our congressional delegation to have that conversation one day.