$7,106.00

[flamin lib]

$7,601.

That’s what every American household spent on the military last year. The Department of Defense budget was only $510.3 Billion but that doesn’t count $85 Billion spent on things like Department of Energy atomic weapons development or defense related intelligence spending at the FBI and CIA. Nor does it include $291 Billion for Veterans, military retirement and interest payments on the Military’s share of the national debt. Roll those extra costs in and total defense spending comes to $885.5 Billion for 2006. Also left out of the $885.5 Billion is all the money allocated to fight the war in Iraq because it’s all done through “emergency supplemental funding.” That money simply doesn’t exist in the budget. But let’s just use the budget numbers to compare our military spending to the rest of the world, shall we?

Total worldwide spending on all fighting forces for all countries including the U.S. is $1.162 Trillion. The DoD budget is just over 51% of that. That’s right, we spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined and we can’t win a war in a country that doesn’t have an army. To put this into perspective the Axis of Evil spent a total of $15 Billion back when Iraq had money to spend, just 2% of what we spend. Russia and China together spend $102 Billion or 17% of our budget.

The Army spent just over a $ Billion on re-enlistment bonuses, up from $175 million before the Iraq invasion but I have it on good authority that morale is high. The Pentagon just announced the cost of the F-35 fighter plane will be 14% more than expected or about $125 Million a copy. Hmmm, at a takeoff weight of 59,900 pounds and pure silver at $16 an ounce we could build them out of solid silver and save about $110 million each. Oh, did I mention that the F-35 will replace the F-22 Joint Strike Fighter which isn’t in production yet and will cost about the same? Eight other major military programs have exceeded a 15% cost increase. The total cost of just those eight programs is more than Russia or China spends on everything they do! Of the eight, only two cost less than Iran and Syria combined spend on defense. If that isn’t enough, another seven programs came in just below a 15% increase.

Of the $594 Billion DoD budget, 25% or about $149 billion can’t be accounted for. That would be enough to fund the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Homeland Security, HUD, Commerce, Energy, Environmental Protection, Nat. Science Fdtn., Army Corps Engineers, Fed. Comm. Commission, education and NASA.

And all I got was this lousey t-shirt.

[Hekate]

1. Our government is nuts

I'd like to give the military industrial complex a :kick: I can think of so many better uses for that money

Hekate

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. The cost of fear.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[bigwillq]

3. I want my money back.

:mad:

And I want those brave men and women who died in this oil war to have their lives back.

:mad:

[I Have A Dream]

4. Utterly shameful. K&R. n/t