Defense spending is now 19% of federal outlays...(LIAR)

[Ripley]

Yeah right, You lying POS, Rumsfeld!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576416271311589238.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Defense spending is now 19% of federal outlays and declining. This is the lowest percentage since before World War II. At 4.7% of GDP, the defense budget is dwarfed by the cost of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which exceed 10% of GDP. Even if President Obama tomorrow brought home each and every troop in Iraq and Afghanistan, tore down the Pentagon, shuttered the CIA and the national security agencies of government, and pink-slipped the three million men and women defending the country, it would not solve America's financial woes.

Mr. Gates deserves good marks for his stewardship of the Pentagon, especially for overseeing the surge and the gradual drawdown in Iraq, and helping to drag a hidebound bureaucracy into the 21st century of asymmetric threats. The principal challenge for Mr. Panetta, beyond seeing a successful conclusion to the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, will be fending off White House and congressional raids on national security spending.

What a damned sick joke. Always the next guy who's going to have a "successful conclusion" to these wars, eh?

Notice how he says "tore down the Pentagon" instead of DEFUNDING the Pentagon.

[Angry Dragon]

1. It is all about the money

I thought defense was closer to 50%

And to equate wars with helping people live out their lives is a farce..........
I guess it is more important to kill people than help them live

[StarsInHerHair]

2. defense spending is 58% of US discretionary budget in 2009

according to the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation

[Ripley]

3. Where's that stat?

Looking at their website, can't find it right away. Thanks.

http://armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/fy_2012_briefing_book/

[StarsInHerHair]

8. I copied the original from a poster here, can't recall who it was though

here's from 2008 a year earlier http://armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/fy09_dod_request_global/

http://armscontrolcenter.org/policy/securityspending/articles/US_vs_Global/ another pie chart


http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending

[Ripley]

9. Hey, thanks.

I see all the military spending info but not the military discretionary part of the US budget. That's what I'm looking for.

[StarsInHerHair]

10. google pie chart of it then

[Ripley]

11. 58% of US budget

You said. Where did you get that stat?

[StarsInHerHair]

12. told you someone on this site had it & I copied it

[Ripley]

14. Do you not see the difference?

You posted:

defense spending is 58% of US discretionary budget in 2009

Then you posted the % of US military spending compared worldwide.

You don't seem to be helping. So I ask:

US defense spending is what percentage of US discretionary budget?

[Ripley]

16. So, it's crap.

Your post was not true but you posted it uh, anyway.

Wonder why.

[StarsInHerHair]

19. MAYBE because it's the 1st chart I had & THEN searched for more online & 10%

difference=total faux outrage. I am busy reading bout the UKs troubles

[Angleae]

18. And discetionary spending is how much of the federal budget?

[JackRiddler]

4. "Defense" is not a deferred payment pension, i.e., something that people paid for all their lives.

Social Security puts money in pockets. It's spent, people eat, demand goes up, economy runs.

"Defense" is a giant black hole into which we throw our society's surplus product, the money that we could use for anything.

"Defense" is capital intensive, produces few jobs compared to other industries, makes high profit for the worst and most dangerous elements in society. Most of it is pulverized on deploying big metal junk abroad, where it is used to murder people and destroy societies.

"Defense" is not defense, it is offense. It is crime. The world's worst war criminal, Rumsfeld, has spoken.

That 5 percent spent on "defense" is the same as what all of the other countries spend on "defense."

But other than that, hey.

[Ripley]

6. Excellent points Jack.

Except folks who live in areas where military bases are located would tell you different. Within and outside America. For example Germany uses it as an excuse for some of their local economies whilst Daimler makes good money off their private American manufacturing plants.

"Fear" seems to be the industry.

[EFerrari]

5. One lying POS IranContra hand washing the other lying POS IranContra hand. n/t

[Ripley]

7. Who is our enemy?

This article is in The Wall Street Journal TODAY, June 30, 2011.

Another exerpt from Donald Rumsfeld.

Our country has taken an ax to our national security budget—both the Defense Department and the intelligence community—after every war of the 20th century. And every time we later regretted it. After years of grinding conflict, it can be easy to fall prey to the comfortable fiction that the ugly business of conflict is over and that the U.S. can reduce its military and intelligence capabilities. If we revert to the pennywise policies of the 1990s, we are certain to have to once again scramble to rebuild our defenses in the future. The critical difference between today and past eras, however, is that the proliferation of biological, chemical and even nuclear weapons means that America's margin for error is considerably more modest.

People like him create enemies and it's shocking to me that this delusional man is allowed to have such a forum today in such a large outlet. Doesn't anyone at the WSJ remember his absurd bullshit during the Iraq invasion?

[quaker bill]

13. It is more than DOD

It is part of the DOE budget, the NSA budget, the CIA budget, the HSA budget, The off budget black ops, the NASA budget...

It is important to remember that Afghanistan was run by the CIA, not the DOD. Defense, truthfully considered, is larger than the 558 billion given to DOD.

[Ripley]

15. Yes

Thank you, quaker bill. The black ops alone probably account for the deficit and the national debt.

Seems like folks aren't interested anymore about where the money goes.

[Ripley]

17. Can't compete against owners

Stop taking our tax dollars and spending them on new weapons.