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Offline dutch508

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The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« on: April 27, 2008, 01:50:37 PM »
Quote
Octafish  (1000+ posts)       Sat Apr-26-08 11:18 AM
Original message
The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke  
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3210704

American historian Chalmers Johnson makes things clear:

The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke

By Chalmers Johnson
Le Monde diplomatique
Posted on April 26, 2008

EXCERPT...

Fiscal disaster

It is virtually impossible to overstate the profligacy of what our government spends on the military. The Department of Defense's planned expenditures for the fiscal year 2008 are larger than all other nations' military budgets combined. The supplementary budget to pay for the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, not part of the official defense budget, is itself larger than the combined military budgets of Russia and China. Defense-related spending for fiscal 2008 will exceed $1 trillion for the first time in history. The U.S. has become the largest single seller of arms and munitions to other nations on Earth. Leaving out President Bush's two on-going wars, defense spending has doubled since the mid-1990s. The defense budget for fiscal 2008 is the largest since the second world war.

Before we try to break down and analyze this gargantuan sum, there is one important caveat. Figures on defense spending are notoriously unreliable. The numbers released by the Congressional Reference Service and the Congressional Budget Office do not agree with each other. Robert Higgs, senior fellow for political economy at the Independent Institute, says: "A well-founded rule of thumb is to take the Pentagon's (always well publicized) basic budget total and double it." Even a cursory reading of newspaper articles about the Department of Defense will turn up major differences in statistics about its expenses. Some 30-40% of the defense budget is 'black,'" meaning that these sections contain hidden expenditures for classified projects. There is no possible way to know what they include or whether their total amounts are accurate.

There are many reasons for this budgetary sleight-of-hand -- including a desire for secrecy on the part of the president, the secretary of defense, and the military-industrial complex -- but the chief one is that members of Congress, who profit enormously from defense jobs and pork-barrel projects in their districts, have a political interest in supporting the Department of Defense. In 1996, in an attempt to bring accounting standards within the executive branch closer to those of the civilian economy, Congress passed the Federal Financial Management Improvement Act. It required all federal agencies to hire outside auditors to review their books and release the results to the public. Neither the Department of Defense, nor the Department of Homeland Security, has ever complied. Congress has complained, but not penalized either department for ignoring the law. All numbers released by the Pentagon should be regarded as suspect.

In discussing the fiscal 2008 defense budget, as released on 7 February 2007, I have been guided by two experienced and reliable analysts: William D Hartung of the New America Foundation's Arms and Security Initiative and Fred Kaplan, defense correspondent for Slate.org. They agree that the Department of Defense requested $481.4bn for salaries, operations (except in Iraq and Afghanistan), and equipment. They also agree on a figure of $141.7bn for the "supplemental" budget to fight the global war on terrorism -- that is, the two on-going wars that the general public may think are actually covered by the basic Pentagon budget. The Department of Defense also asked for an extra $93.4bn to pay for hitherto unmentioned war costs in the remainder of 2007 and, most creatively, an additional "allowance" (a new term in defense budget documents) of $50bn to be charged to fiscal year 2009. This makes a total spending request by the Department of Defense of $766.5bn.

But there is much more. In an attempt to disguise the true size of the U.S. military empire, the government has long hidden major military-related expenditures in departments other than Defense. For example, $23.4bn for the Department of Energy goes towards developing and maintaining nuclear warheads; and $25.3bn in the Department of State budget is spent on foreign military assistance (primarily for Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Republic, Egypt and Pakistan). Another $1.03bn outside the official Department of Defense budget is now needed for recruitment and re-enlistment incentives for the overstretched U.S. military, up from a mere $174m in 2003, when the war in Iraq began. The Department of Veterans Affairs currently gets at least $75.7bn, 50% of it for the long-term care of the most seriously injured among the 28,870 soldiers so far wounded in Iraq and 1,708 in Afghanistan. The amount is universally derided as inadequate. Another $46.4bn goes to the Department of Homeland Security.

Missing from this compilation is $1.9bn to the Department of Justice for the paramilitary activities of the FBI; $38.5bn to the Department of the Treasury for the Military Retirement Fund; $7.6bn for the military-related activities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; and well over $200bn in interest for past debt-financed defense outlays. This brings U.S. spending for its military establishment during the current fiscal year, conservatively calculated, to at least $1.1 trillion.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/story/83555 /


Gee. That was published by the French. I've never seen this mentioned in my city's two major dailies, let alone on the tee-vee.

maybe it's because it's not true?

Quote
DemReadingDU  (1000+ posts)       Sat Apr-26-08 10:55 PM
Response to Reply #5
26. Cornell Corrections by Catherine Austin Fitts
 Fascinating, here is one paragraph from chapter 9...

For example, in 1996, when Cornell went public, based on the financial information provided in the offering document provided to investors, its stock was valued at $24,241 per bed. This means that for every contract Cornell got to house one prisoner, at that time, their stock went up in value by an average of $24,261. According to prevailing business school philosophy, this is the stock market’s current present value of the future flow of profit flows generated through the management of each prisoner. This, for example, is why longer mandatory sentences are worth so much to private prison stocks. A prisoner in jail for twenty years has a twenty-year cash flow associated with his incarceration, as opposed to one with a shorter sentence or one eligible for an early parole.<47> This means that we have created a significant number of private interests — investment firms, banks, attorneys, auditors, architects, construction firms, real estate developers, bankers, academics, investors among them— who have a vested interest in increasing the prison population and keeping people behind bars as long as possible.

more...
http://www.dunwalke.com/9_Cornell_Corrections.htm


  :thatsright:

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kestrel91316  (1000+ posts)       Sat Apr-26-08 11:42 AM
Response to Original message
2. The US has gone broke because it has been waging unprovoked
 war on an imaginary enemy for five years.

I am reminded of Romans 6:23 in the KJV bible: "For the wages of sin is death....." - in this case the death of our economy and standard of living.

There are a few words of wisdom in that book (along with some pure poppycock, but that's for another day).
 

Another truffer speaks...

Quote
QuestionAll  (1000+ posts)      Sat Apr-26-08 03:01 PM
Response to Reply #13
17. lil' poppy bush was also getting his feet wet in the spy game at the time
 Edited on Sat Apr-26-08 03:02 PM by QuestionAll
some of prescott's nazi connections probably came in handy.


 :mental:

Quote
Octafish  (1000+ posts)       Sat Apr-26-08 01:52 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. Wall Street is always looking for a good investment, such as the Bush Crime Family.  
 Know your BFEE: Scions of the Military Industrial Complex

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

A hearty welcome to DU, Crescent City Kid!


 :mental: :mental:

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Offline TheSarge

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2008, 01:58:57 PM »
The DUmmies have no clue what kind of financial damage would occur to the small towns located outside of most military bases if they were to close up shop.

You want to see financial disaster in America...close up bases in places like Junction City, Kansas and Hinesville, GA and see what happens.
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Offline Airwolf

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2008, 02:10:14 PM »
Someone better check the budgets for  the past 30 years. We have spent less and less on the military then on Welfare and education.
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Offline jukin

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2008, 02:27:47 PM »
So it is not the 73% social spending> Whew glad that is settled.
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Offline formerlurker

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2008, 05:09:02 PM »
Where the money goes

DoD spending can't touch Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and Pork spending.

Nice try though.

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Offline TheSarge

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #5 on: April 27, 2008, 05:19:02 PM »
Quote from: formerlurker on April 27, 2008, 05:09:02 PM
Where the money goes

DoD spending can't touch Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid and Pork spending.

Nice try though.



But if we didn't have an imperial war machine that money could go towards social programs that will heal the world/DU mode
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Liberalism Is The Philosophy Of The Stupid

The libs/dems of today are the Quislings of former years.  The cowards who would vote a fraud into office in exchange for handouts from the devil.

If it walks like a donkey and brays like a donkey and smells like a donkey - it's Cold Warrior.  - PoliCon



Palin has run a state, a town and a commercial fishing operation. Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. - Mark Steyn

Offline Chris_

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #6 on: April 27, 2008, 05:20:18 PM »
Looney Tunes.
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Offline DixieBelle

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #7 on: April 27, 2008, 06:06:24 PM »
We need that picture that says, "oh jeez, not this _____ again!"

DUmmies!!!
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Offline franksolich

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #8 on: April 27, 2008, 06:14:23 PM »
Oh geezuz.

When one looks at the numbers, it's obvious the primitives and sub-primitives, recipients of generous social services policies, are the ones strangling the economy.

And what with these hippies now ancient and decrepit, pretty soon the War for the Liberation of Iraq will seem a bargain, compared with their pharmaceutical bills the rest of us will have to pay.
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Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #9 on: April 27, 2008, 06:44:17 PM »
...And the crazy little piggy went "Oui, oui, oui," all the way home.

 :censored:
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Offline Chris_

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #10 on: April 27, 2008, 08:15:45 PM »
Quote from: DumbAss Tanker on April 27, 2008, 06:44:17 PM
...And the crazy little piggy went "Oui, oui, oui," all the way home.

 :censored:

 :lmao:
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Offline TheSarge

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #11 on: April 27, 2008, 09:29:07 PM »
Quote from: DixieBelle on April 27, 2008, 06:06:24 PM
We need that picture that says, "oh jeez, not this _____ again!"

DUmmies!!!






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Liberalism Is The Philosophy Of The Stupid

The libs/dems of today are the Quislings of former years.  The cowards who would vote a fraud into office in exchange for handouts from the devil.

If it walks like a donkey and brays like a donkey and smells like a donkey - it's Cold Warrior.  - PoliCon



Palin has run a state, a town and a commercial fishing operation. Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. - Mark Steyn

Offline Chris_

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Re: The Pentagon Strangles Our Economy: Why the U.S. Has Gone Broke
« Reply #12 on: April 28, 2008, 03:58:28 AM »
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