Community | April 11, 2011 | 62 comments

REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001

source: http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/11/military-spending-doubled-since-2001/

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A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. The U.S. spent an astounding $698 billion on the military last year, an 81% increase over the last decade.

U.S. spending on the military last year far exceeded any other country. We spent six times more than China — the second largest spender. Overall, the world expended $1.6 trillion on the military, with the United States accounting for the lion’s share:


As a percentage of GDP, U.S. military spending has increased from 3.1% in 2001 to 4.8% last year.

The report notes that, “even in the face of efforts to bring down the soaring US budget deficit, military spending continues to receive privileged treatment.” Indeed, House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and others on the right are passing legislation increasing defense spending. At the same time, they are insisting on massive cuts to social programs that provide vital assistance to the elderly, the poor and the middle class.


http://thinkprogress.org/2011/04/11/military-spending-doubled-since-2001/
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62 comments // REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001

  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  

    • That makes a lot of sense since our money has been devalued by 50%
      of what it was when Hitler Bush took office due to the colossal waste of
      resources spent on 2 foreign wars keeping us dependent on foreign
      oil. ( yet another bleeder ) Do the math. Military spending is the most
      inflationary of all other kinds of spending anyway because it never
      cycles anything it produces back to the civilian population. What do
      you do with a tank when you're through using it ? The military has
      a well deserved reputation for wasting anyway. I've seen documentaries
      from WW2 era where the sailors serving on PT boats wept after the
      order came down to burn them after they were decommissioned.
      War is an emotional thing, but some of the wood that went into their
      construction was alleged to be mahogeny. I own a mahogeny round
      table my mom and dad paid $250 in Silver for in 1947. So you know
      how much those 500 Walking Liberty Silver half dollars are worth today ?

    • 1 year ago
  • Warren_Merrill
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • Warren_Merrill:

      Thanks for your response. I've been a coin collector for 50 years, and it's
      never lost it's magic. The essence of what I was getting at though is not so
      much that Numismatists place a premium on coins on the secondary
      market compared to the base value of the metal. What I was getting at is
      the real reason why the military budget takes up twice the resources it
      used to before Bush. As mentioned, that's because the value of our money
      has diminished by roughly 50 %. It doesn't take an economist to figure out
      what inflation does to the value of money. The USA was subverted in 1913
      when our money wad subverted by the foreign introduction of the Federal
      Reserve on our soil. Within 20 years the USA had to abandon the Gold
      Standard. Within another 31 years from then, the Silver Standard. Within
      another 19 years from then, the Copper Standard in cents ( the cents have
      been copper coated zinc since 1983 ). That system is all out of whack now.

      Coin collectors are invariably History buffs too. When you compare how our
      monentary system has been subverted by these Banksters and their Ponzi
      Scheme debt based monentary system which profits them at our loss, it's
      easy to see that Usery=Slavery. Before those pernicious parasites came
      along the value of our money was relatively stable. The price of a troy oz
      of Gold held stable at $20 from 1792-1932. Because there was a system
      of weights & measures practiced throughout, the ratio of the value of Silver
      to Gold was 20 to 1. When you realize too, that the original ratio of Copper
      to Silver was 100 cents the size of a Kennedy Half dollar-so large that there
      were half cents the size of a quarter-so farmers always had an abundant
      supply of money, then you realize why farmers knew Copper, Merchants
      knew Silver, the rich knew Gold. When's the last time you saw a Kennedy
      half dollar in circulation ?

      Ultimately, my point is that Banksters profit by fomenting war because they
      make skads more moola when they pressure military buildups as this article
      indirectly exposes, invade foreign countries, destroy their infrastructure, then
      rebuild their infrastructure. Simply make home loans is trifling compared to
      all that. And who pays for all this subversion of our money supply ? And all
      this militarism ? Who else ? They'd not be pulling all that shit if they had to
      pay for it. The Banksters extort American's tax dollars to fund their military
      ventures under the pretense of " national security " . On Dan Rather World
      Reports featured on the Dish satellite network's HD Net channel, there's
      an 8,000 Marines buildup proposed to occur there soon on American Guam.
      They don't have any voice in Congress, so it's taxation w/o representation
      all over again as the original Amercan Revolutionaries protested. So when
      you look at the diversion of American resources to fund the military buildup,
      you're realy looking at the beginning stages of martial law as a contingency
      plan. Because the USA has been bankrupt since 1970. And in 2011 we're
      now redlining the domestic economy tachometer at $14.3 Trillion, which is
      only the tip of the iceberg. Like vampires, the BIS, IMF, Fed Banksters are
      still still trying to tell the Govt how to screw us to the wall to bleed us dry.

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
    • 0
      Persecuted  

    • i've got a plan for military spending.... program one nuclear bomb on the path to every capitol city in the world.... have one guy sitting at a computer with a phone and a fire switch... there ya go... thats our military budget.... fuck with us, we will nuke you, let every country in the world know you have done this, and dare them to make a false move. let them do whatever they want to each other, its not our business. use the money spent on social programs for the people. end of story.
      no soldiers, no occupation, no hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the military.

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
  • ejasun
    • +2
      ejasun  

    • DO THEY KNOW SOMETHING WE SHOULD KNOW? While we lose our jobs our homes, our minds? WE NEED A ROBIN HOOD PRESIDENT steal from the rich to feed the poor! NO WAR MONGER's!

    • 1 year ago
  • mikem0487
    • +1
      mikem0487  

    • I knew we spent six times the amount on Defense than the runner up but did not know it had doubled since Bush took the position! This is why our country is so messed up! Throw billions of dollars into military and defense and cut education and research! Great just great, looks like my kids (if and when I have any) are going to have a horrible youth with a terrible education system! CONGRATULATIONS USA!

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
    • 0
      Persecuted  
    • mikem0487:

      and whats sad is that china could still kick our ass with sheer man power... if we went the other route, and did well by our citizens and refused to go to war at all, we'd be much safer, lose less lives, have a booming economy, and everyone in the country would be a happier person.

    • 1 year ago
  • WagonMaster
    • +1
      WagonMaster  

    • What's so shocking about this ? We're fighting two wars at tthe same time while juggling homeland security. Besides, we need a lot of generals and admirals to attend gala events .It makes the Republicans feel more secure.

    • 1 year ago
  • Persecuted
    • 0
      Persecuted  
    • WagonMaster:

      was it jon stewart that said the other day (not sure who said it) (something like this anyways) the chance of a terrorist killing you is almost a zero probability... but dying due to heart attack is a very real risk... yet they spend billions protecting us from terrorists, while stuffing cheeseburgers down their throats.

    • 1 year ago
  • ilikeike
    • +1
      ilikeike  

    • The US military is what keeps the rich worldwide from being mobbed by the poor worldwide. Spreading democracy means increasing the class divisions. Ultimately very few people are striving for more and more power, this naturally draws more wealth from the many to the few. Hired thugs.

    • 1 year ago
  • extracrazykiwi2008
  • August_K
    • +3
      August_K  
    • Image

    • Speaking of spending and Budgets.
      I spent some time reading about budgets from the Bush years to Obama's budgets. His first was actually the Bush one, since they do them a year in advance. Anyway, I was curious as to how much we spend on the Dept of Homeland Security so off I went clicking around and I after reading about the
      HS Dept. and what all they do I got to a section called Fusion Centers.

      "Fusion centers are terrorism prevention and response centers, many of which were created under a joint project between the Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs between 2003 and 2007. The fusion centers gather information not only from government sources, but also from their partners in the private sector."

      So....I read through that and kept reading. One line at the end of this next few paragraphs literally had me falling off my chair. I couldn't stop laughing.

      "There are a number of documented criticisms of fusion centers, including relative ineffectiveness at counterterrorism activities, the potential to be used for secondary purposes unrelated to counterterrorism, and their links to violations of civil liberties of American citizens and others.

      David Rittgers of the Cato Institute has noted

      a long line of fusion center and DHS reports labeling broad swaths of the public as a threat to national security. The North Texas Fusion System labeled Muslim lobbyists as a potential threat; a DHS analyst in Wisconsin thought both pro- and anti-abortion activists were worrisome; a Pennsylvania homeland security contractor watched environmental activists,
      Tea Party groups, and a Second Amendment rally; the Maryland State Police put anti-death penalty and anti-war activists in a federal terrorism database; a fusion center in Missouri thought that all third-party voters and Ron Paul supporters were a threat; and the Department of Homeland Security described half of the American political spectrum as “right wing extremists."

      Extremists! LOL

      So this is where our tax dollars are going.....Bush really did set up a new spying agency! LOL

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security

    • 1 year ago
  • PressCore
    • +1
      PressCore  
    • August_K:

      Thank you for getting to the heart of the matter. George Bush Jr, and
      the entire loathsome dynasty he represents starting with Hitler supporter
      Prescott Bush are public enemies. Yet Americans voted these public
      enemies into office, not once but twice. And the most insipid thing of all
      it some shitbags are still talking about erecting another Bush into the
      presidency. This gives the perversity of sado masochism a whole new
      meaning. Any nazi agency considering 1/2 the American people as if
      they were " enemies of the State " is something out of the 1973 news
      article " Hughs, Nixon, and the CIA " featured in print in Playboy magazine.
      The DSS is Geroge Bush Jr's furtherance of Hitler's Odessa Project.
      He fancies himself the reincarnation of Adolph Hitler. The Bush's are a
      disgrace to the good name of Texas. And when oil disappears from this
      world their fleeting power will too. Bush Jr still has a horrendous scandle
      that hasn't been exposed yet. Not Bush, his insipid wife, ( both with mouths
      as wide as the Holland Tunnel in NYC ), or Doprah Windbag, yet another
      exercise in crime & corruption, with a horrendous scandle yet to be exposed,
      can gloss over what's coming to haunt their sordid lives with simply more
      of their smug, cheap talk. Their house of cards is about to be toppled.
      P.S. I dig your avatar. I'm not either.

    • 1 year ago
  • dreaddaze
  • alexandrek
  • August_K
    • +1
      August_K  
    • alexandrek:

      Cheney expanded ours....he's making his defense contractor friends rich. Halliburton and their other wing KBR? does all kinds of stuff that the military used to do. They even launder our soldiers clothes and I'm sure they charge the government 1,000 times more than any laundry would.

      I saw some folks talking about it on a youtube video...actually complaining is more like it.
      Some temporary quarters they set up for them someplace (in Kuwait?) were pretty awful I guess. Mold, leaking water pipes etc.

      What's even worse is that Halliburton was caught overcharging the government.
      I tried to follow the story but I'm not sure if they were ever made to repay them?
      They were billing for food and stuff that the military never got. Over a billion in overcharges for various things they never provided.

    • 1 year ago
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • alexandrek:

      Simple, their currency is backed by coined money that has real value,
      while the USA's currency is made by a foreign cabal of Banksters based
      on a Ponzi Scheme. Though the " Fed " has our Treasury back their
      Monopoly parlor game funny money, it has to mint toy money made
      of copper & zinc which has only token value. In fact our " dollar " is worth
      so little, pennies compared to what it was 80 years ago, only Americans
      mostly have any real faith in it. While Russian money is comparitively
      worth so much, the USA has to spend 12 times more than they do to
      come up with a product that's so defective, due to our corrupt system,
      we're no match for them. Migs are built like bricks, while F16s are built
      like fine Swiss watches. (I've seen documentaries where Migs have been
      put back into service after landing without working landing gear)

    • 1 year ago
  • alexandrek
  • PressCore
    • 0
      PressCore  
    • alexandrek:

      I agree Alexandrek. We Bhuddists have a simple philosophy: " If you
      want to find out why we are where & how we are, look to the past. If
      you want to find out our future look to the present " The sad fact of
      the matter is the central bankers/uberrich/military connection has
      been so thoroughly entrenched in the USA since the late 1700s when
      the USA was established. Like the cornerstone of a building, it can't
      easily be removed-if at all. Before we can reform all the corruption
      existing between the uberrich investing Bankster created bogus
      currency we're forced to work to back, we first have to restore the
      soverignty of the USA to manage our own affairs. In order to do that
      we need to restore the soverignty of our Treasury to not only coin
      our money, but to issue our own currency, To do that we need to
      end the federal reserve system, renounce the national debt and
      declare bankruptcy. The US Bankruptcy Act of 1898 allows all
      Americans individualy the ability to make a fresh start w Chapter 7,
      but it doesn't allow American's collectively to do that. Ultimately
      the U.S. Government, no matter how badly it's been allowed to
      be mismanaged since 1913, is Americans' collective obligation.
      Liberty, Equality, Fraternity isn't possible if our money is shit.
      Our money represents our time, which is our life. But it's being
      treated as solid waste by Banksters who operate on debt slavery.

    • 1 year ago
  • im1mjrpain
  • letsliveinpeace
  • Richard_Wyatt
  • CreditFigaro
    • +4
      CreditFigaro  

    • What people don't realize is that for the productivity/energy/money we spent on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, we could be completely free of all foreign oil and much of our coal fired plants by now.

      War isn't the solution, it's the problem... government is just the one who makes the choice.

    • 1 year ago
  • thedirtman
  • August_K
    • +1
      August_K  
    • CreditFigaro:

      The folks who profit from war are really the ones running the show. They only needed Bush to sell the war to the people through continuous fear mongering.
      Bush even had to bribe/pay off a bunch of countries so he could create an "alliance".
      Nobody really wanted the US to go into Iraq. The UN sure didn't and a lot of other countries didn't either.

      9/11 gave him the excuse he needed to start the fear mongering about the WMD's and he just kept pushing his agenda and we're still paying for it.
      The Bush gift that keeps on giving....and bleeding our country dry financially.

    • 1 year ago
  • thedirtman
    • +2
      thedirtman  

    • Instead of cutting just $39 billion America could cut $450 billion and still have double the biggest military expenditure in the world.

    • 1 year ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • audiotruther
    • -3
      audiotruther  

    • Is it a coincidence that the begin these Wars during full Moon on the same date , they are committing a blood Sacrifice to the elite's God , Gia, whcih is a deception as well it is Lucifer they worshiping. The truth is Jesus has returned to gather his people and order them to wake up the masses, listen below and listen to understand the truth, 12/21/12 the day of judgment is closing in , will you make to the other side ?
      http://fightthe.podomatic.com/entry/2011-02-08T22_20_10-08_00

    • 1 year ago
  • CreditFigaro
  • coolplanet
  • ninetyseven
  • Nephwrack
  • kennymotown
  • BenjaminDover
  • kennymotown
  • SoCalFramer
    • +1
      SoCalFramer  
    • kennymotown:

      Kenny the night of the long knives would put us on the reciving end of those knives according to what I read " I had to read about the night, I had never heard of it". I understand your frustration and I understand your reference. I believe exodus a movment of the people is what will work. Our main enemy is the ability to reach an educated populace.

    • 1 year ago
  • kennymotown
  • RojoGatto
  • samthesixth
  • simplecj
  • CreditFigaro
  • August_K
  • dinm76
    • 0
      dinm76  

    • What a way to start a new century! Like it of not rethugs....it is and will always be known as " The Lost Decade of America" thanks to you.

    • 1 year ago
  • ampersand
    • +1
      ampersand  

    • Before the appearance of Mikhail Gorbachev and glasnost, Ronald Reagan once famously fantasied about "lobbing one (a nuclear bomb) into the men's room at the Kremlin."
      I guess until our glasnost arrives, and our total melt-down under the weight of the military monster we all carry on our backs in the US, I'd share that same wistful fantasy about the Pentagon.

    • 1 year ago
  • simplecj
    • +6
      simplecj  
    • Image

    • http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

      There's a different picture that comes into focus when you include ALL military related expenses instead of just the DoD budget. This site puts the total at $1.4 TRILLION, or about 54% of total state and federal expenditures ... and our government almost shuts down over Head Start and Planned Parenthood? When are they going to start taking an honest look at the elephant in the room?

      Check out the site, they give some good explanation as to all the additional figures that they have included as well as some other charts explaining military spending...

      http://www.warresisters.org/pages/images/pieFY09.gif

    • 1 year ago
  • Leen61
    • +7
      Leen61  

    • This article and pie chart just proves what I knew already---that this country is run by the MIC and corporations. Of course we will never cut military spending. All America manufactures anymore is war. We don't make or build anything here, we make war. This is why all social programs are being cut, our infrastructure is falling apart, no jobs get created, etc, etc. This country isn't about the people. It's all about the MIC and corporations. This is what we have money for. To hell with human needs and jobs. They really don't want to rebuild our country and they don't want to invest in the American people. Welcome to 1984 and the plutocracy.

    • 1 year ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • Leen61
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • Leen61
  • Leen61
  • Milieu
    • +5
      Milieu  

    • Dwight had it Right:

      Military-Industrial Complex Speech, Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

      "This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

      In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

      We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. "

      http://www.h-net.org/~hst306/documents/indust.html

    • 1 year ago
  • Leen61
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
    • +4
      COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM  

    • Of course they did! And, it precisely mirrors the rise in the hand over hand strangle hold up the neck of Congress and the public's purse. And all of the budget cuts to public programs is yet more tightening of corporate's grip on our collective necks and money.

      Worse, there is only one way to stop the reach and shake loose their strangling grasp, and that's to march up the steps of the Capitol and demand complete campaign finance reform and an end to corporate personhood, short of dissolving current government all together.

    • 1 year ago
  • delas78
    • +4
      delas78  

    • How is it that the teabaggers manage to consistantly look past this?

      And NPR is a socialist money sucking machine, that will enslave our granchildren in debt!?!? hahaha

    • 1 year ago
  • SoCalFramer
  • BenjaminDover
  • delas78
  • dinm76
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