Community | January 08, 2013 | 66 comments

We don’t have a spending problem, we have a military spending problem

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letsliveinpeace
Have you read Brad Plumer’s terrific, chart-heavy primer on America’s insane defense budget? If not, I’ll wait while you do.

Done? Good. The numbers there should shock you. In particular, this one: “Since 2001, the base defense budget has soared from $287 billion to $530 billion — and that’s before accounting for the primary costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.” Or, if you prefer to see it in graph form:

That’s big money. More than we spent on Medicare, in fact. But it’s big money that doesn’t often get recognized in our budget conversation.

The forward of Rep. Paul Ryan’s 2011 budget — which was later adopted by both House and Senate Republicans — offers a concise version of the Republican take on our deficits. “The U.S. government is not running sustained deficits because Americans are taxed too little,” the authors write. “The government is running deficits because it spends too much.”

Among the most serious attempts to prove this point came from Charles Blahous writing at the conservative think tank E21. Blahous set out to show the exact factors that took us from surpluses in 2001 to deficits in 2011. In particular, he wanted to show that tax cuts were not at fault.

The Bush tax cuts, he finds, were responsible for about a quarter of the deterioration in the budget outlook, making them the single most expensive set of policies enacted. But all spending, together, was responsible for about half of the turn towards deficits. Finally, the flagging economy accounts for another quarter. “Had the tax relief never been enacted but everything else happened as it has, we still would face enormous deficits today,” Blahous concludes.

So where did all the new spending come from? Well, largely from the post-9/11 defense build-up. “One major factor that worsened the fiscal outlook was a large increase in federal discretionary spending. Much of this, of course, happened after the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001. The U.S. thereafter conducted major military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also increased expenditures on homeland security.”

This isn’t the easiest graph to read, but it tells the basic tale. The blue line is what the Congressional Budget Office thought would happen. The green line is what happened when you take into account the economic turbulence. The purple line shows the budget after discretionary spending, which was driven by increased war and security costs. Then the light blue adds in mandatory spending (including Medicare Part D), the orange adds in TARP, and the periwinkle — yeah, I know my colors — adds in the stimulus. Compared to the discretionary spending, they barely move the needle:

As a broad point, I don’t think this proves that we have a spending problem rather than a taxing problem. It shows we have deficits driven by a range of factors, including tax cuts, war spending, the recessions, Medicare Part D, the stimulus, and more. It implies the solution should include measures to boost taxes, cut spending, and increase growth,. But if you want to argue that our current deficits are the result of overspending, then the military budget and the wars need to be the center of your analysis. Yet the Republican budget doesn’t envision big defense cuts and the 2012 Republican nominee for president sought large increases in defense spending.

That accounts for the 2001 to 2011 period. Going forward, of course, we have a health care problem more than we have a taxing or spending problem. But even that may be abating.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/01/07/we-dont-have-a-spendi...
  1. groups:
    Community,   News and Politics,   Greatest Depression,   Sustainable Energy,   2 more
  2. tags:
    Defense Cuts,  defense spending out of control
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66 comments // We don’t have a spending problem, we have a military spending problem

  • Earthwalker
    • 0
      Earthwalker  
    • Image

    • lets see what your made of... OH your one of them..... drunk on the GOP hooch...let me remind you that the spoils of war go to the victor ...and if WE THE PEOPLE are financing that war with taxation than we should reap the rewards... Pretend I am from Missouri(SHOW ME) where, after taking two oil rich countries we have reaped the benefits or "spoils" of the two wars.
      Your argument is pretty much debunked in this photo...the bailout was already in play, a strategic move, one as sophisticated and clandestine as the attack we all had to witness as the village idiot read my little goat. now go back to your insignificant lazy boy and go wash your face you have egg on it!!!

    • 4 months ago
  • youguysareweak
  • 2warsoffbooks
    • +2
      2warsoffbooks  

    • Jim Stoner more great posts.

      Facts, common sense, logic!

      I vote you up. But feel that more is needed.

      We need a progressive poster of the day award for Jim. All in favor say aye!

    • 4 months ago
  • Frosty46
    • +2
      Frosty46  

    • The 9-11 scam worked as well as any of the scams of the Military Industrial Complex------------insanity reigns supreme in America, land of the scam!

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • cmdinc
  • lightningthunderfox
  • The_Wanderer_Kansas
  • jimstoner
    • +8
      jimstoner  

    • Tax cuts = Republicans

      War spending = Republicans

      Recessions = Republicans (8 out of 9 anyway including the last one)

      Medicare part D = Republicans

      The stimulus = financial collapse = Wall Street and bank wrongdoing = deregulation = Republicans.

      Balanced budgets and 2 to 1 job creation = Democrats

      Tax cuts, war spending, recessions, unfunded programs like Medicare part D and deregulation (Republicans hate regulations like thieves hate laws) are all a direct result of giving Republicans the chance to implement conservative policy.

      You do not now, nor have you ever had a spending or tax problem. You have the same problem now that you have had in the past, and will have in the future. The single and only problem you will ever have is Republicans.

      You will never get out of the political and fiscal trouble you in until you recognize the only reason for those problems and say so with one united voice across the nation and especially in the media. All your problems come from the fact that you have the Republican Party and as long as they exist in their present far right form you are doomed.

      Every single problem you have right down to the fact that you have people dying because of a lack of health care is 100% the fault of Republicans and the uneducated and uninformed Americans that keep voting for them.

      If people keep burning your house down you can't solve the problem by getting rid of matches. You have to get rid of the arsonists. America's arsonists are the Republicans.

      You do not have a tax or spending problem. You have Republicans. Full stop.

    • 4 months ago
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • cmdinc
  • jimstoner
    • +5
      jimstoner  
    • Image
    • cmdinc:

      Here it is again. Show me what part of the C.B.O.'s deficit analyses can’t be traced back to the Bush tax cuts, unfunded wars and deregulation. The C.B.O.’s deficit analysis contains Republican policy and nothing else. Republican policy at work.

      Conservatives right now will look at it and do everything in their power to willfully ignore it. It simply will not penetrate because it throws the conservative mindset into a tail spin and the average conservative is to intellectually bankrupt to know how to deal with it.

      So they just pretend they didn’t see it all.

      “It’s the teachers and firefighters and police officers and Grandma who are at fault for the deficit and I know it’s true because the Republicans say so. I trust the Republicans because they are the only ones who do not expect me to think for myself and they always tell me it can’t be my fault. I voted for them. They make us feel good about being uninformed and scared all the time.” That’s conservatism in America right now.

      Conservatives can see that social spending is not even in the deficit analyisis but that simply does not matter to them. The Republicans say in order to pay for Republican policy disasters we have cut Grandma’s pension. So conservatives voters stomp their feet, flare their nostrils and say “Let’s get grandma.” In fact let’s hold the entire economy hostage until we can make grandma starve to death and get these tax cuts for the rich and unfunded wars for the Military Industrial Complex paid for.

      Darrell Issa, a Republican from California said a week or so ago that the Bush tax cuts for the rich have not been paid for. He admitted they would amount to almost 4 trillion dollars of the debt. This of course goes completely against what the Republicans have said for years about tax cuts for the rich. They have always said they are free because they would create jobs and strengthen the economy. The fact that these tax cuts have never done either seems to be just another fact conservatives enjoy to ignore. Now all of a sudden Issa and other Republicans say the Bush tax cuts for the rich have not been paid for so guess who he says should pay for them. You guessed it. Grandma and anybody else that is not a recipient of those tax cuts. Meaning the rich.

      These Republicans actually have the audacity to finally admit the Bush tax cuts alone added 4 trillion to the deficit all told and don’t give a damn. Make the poor pay for them anyway.

      American Conservatives sure have a lot to be proud of.

      I noticed you did not try to refute any of the things I said, you just did the typical conservative thing and spewed foolishness.

      Read on. I will give you some more cold hard facts to ignore in order to sleep at night.

    • 4 months ago
  • jimstoner
    • +4
      jimstoner  
    • Image
    • jimstoner:

      Here are some more facts that conservatives traditionally see as crap. It really is how they see all truth. If it's true, a Conservative will not likely believe it.

      The first thing you might want to look at is what the C.B.O. says the debt will be if America keeps listening to Republicans. That's the graph on the right. Seems appropriate don't you think?

      Do you see what the percentage of debt to G.D.P. is at the end of 2012? It was73%. Far lower than a lot of countries who are just fine with their economies. Countries like the U.K., Germany, Canada, Singapore and Japan. These countries all have better safety net programs than America does and they are all on the list of countries with the best economies The only thing these countries don't have that America does are Republicans and the uneducated people who vote for them.

      Can you imagine? The only thing these successful countries don't have in common with America is better safety net programs, no Republicans or people uneducated and uninformed enough to let Republicans exist.

      Only an American Conservative would think they could pay their debts by taking in less revenue. Try that at home and see how far you get. Tell your family you plan to pay your bills by taking a cut in pay. When your family says you are crazy you can always tell them it is just sound conservative fiscal policy.

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
    • -1
      cmdinc  
    • jimstoner:

      -first get your terminology correct...although i have to agree most all have it wrong. In reference to the Bush tax cuts, once they become the tax code that terminolgy gets thrown out the window..unless he gives another tax cut in the folowing year. Don't know what archives you found this but once we have gone past present estimates should be transferred to acutual...in other words your "estimate"starts at 2009...sorry not an estimate anymore..actual is what you need to produce for past my friend.
      -to say i am intelluctually bankrupt is junk..you dont know me nor the level of my intellect. If i used PE after my name would that help? or is it just because i don't drink the liberal kool aide.
      -probably entitlements were not put in the CBO report as they were not asked to compare such. If asked the CBO could generate a report showing that social spending accounts for all of the deficit...or Medicare could. IT IS WHAT THEY ARE ASKED TO PRODUCE. both sides of the aisle ask the CBO for reports phrased so the result will favor their opinion.
      -how do you pay for a tax cut????i never said i agree with some of the Bush policies..but we sure had a better 8 years with him than the 4 we have had with Oblunder. and by the way the deficit was +/- 10 trillion...now over 16 trillion. Obama will have surpassed all other presidents by the time his term is over. So you can stay on the blame Bush if you like..but it isn't doing anyone any fucking good
      -i don't know what presser or the like you are referring, but i need more information on who said what..but really it is irrelivant..we are where we are...we just need to fix it. If you really believe taxing the wealthy will fix this you are niave,
      -taking it out on the poor??? the tax cuts Bush enacted went across the board. Remeber the top 5% wage earners pay 60% of the tax burden..

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
    • -1
      cmdinc  
    • jimstoner:

      sorry can't read the report but again CBO will generate anything requested...BOTH SIDES are to blame for using the CBO as ammunition
      -now you are saying a a 73% debt to GDP is ok? no more needs to be said. You just don't get it. To become dependent on any goverment means the demise of its fabric. Although there are many theories on it, my belief is that the fall of Rome was due to admittaly among other things the dependency to government
      be specific in your safety net programs...no sense debating such a broad term.
      most financial gurus/business owners don't look at taking in less revenue...only matching expenditures to income. Incomes fluctuate with any given year...the expenditures need to decrease when income decreases. I have run my finances this way with my business and in my personal finances...and it has worked out very well for me...and my family appreciates my hard work and financial status.

    • 4 months ago
  • jimstoner
    • +2
      jimstoner  
    • cmdinc:

      I didn't so much as accuse you of being a Republican, a Conservative, intellectually bankrupt or a daffodil. I said the average Conservative is intellectually bankrupt and that is simply a matter of record. The less educated a person is, the more likely they are to be a Conservative, Republican voter and that ship left the dock a long time ago.

      Now that Republicans are admitting the Bush tax cuts were never paid for do you think the money should come out of safety net programs or do you think the rich people who got the money the last Democratic President left behind as a budget surplus should give it back?

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
    • 0
      cmdinc  
    • Image
    • jimstoner:

      well i consider myself an average Conservative...just saying
      it has been proven by lower taxes it stimulates the economy as well as bringing in more revenue to the government.see graph
      I asked you in the last post to expand your term "safety net programs" you did not. Yes we need to maintain some sort of safety net....... agreed. The net though should be only to stop a person from falling..not to hold them up long term, for just like the literal net, to many people for to long the net will fail Whatever happened to personal responsibilty and accountability?

    • 4 months ago
  • jimstoner
    • 0
      jimstoner  
    • cmdinc:

      Safety net programs are social programs like welfare, Medicare, Social Security and the like.

      Do you think the people on unemployment in America are not responsible? They are not the cause of the recession.

      Do you think the Americans collecting their Social Security are not personally responsible? They are personally responsible for working their entire lives for good of family and country, paid into the Social Security insurance fund and like anybody else get to collect their pensions. Why can’t the next generation have that privilege too?

      Funding to safety nets does not have to be cut. If Washington could work together and just reform a lot of this stuff from the tax code to waste in social programs everybody would be a lot better off. Did you know that 9 states pay more to welfare recipients monthly than they do their teachers in salaries?

      34% of welfare recipients are off assistance in less than 1 year.

      53% of welfare recipients are off assistance in less than 2 years.

      80% of welfare recipients are back on their feet within 5 years.

      Number of Americans on welfare in October 2012 was 4.3 million

      Number of Americans on food stamps in October 2012 was 46.7 million.

      Number of Americans on Unenployment Insurance in October 2012 was 5.6 million.

      I don’t think they are being personally irresponsible. I think they are dealing with the personal irresponsibility of the very rich, very powerful and very connected that caused the problem in the first place. The same people who are now saying fix it by taking even more away from the average American, average Conservative too, to protect the interests of the very rich, very powerful and very connected.

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
    • 0
      cmdinc  
    • jimstoner:

      thanks for clarifying jim.
      yes we need SOME welfare, most medicare.
      Socail security needs somemajor reform and yes we need to increase the age which trigger colection. This needs to be done in a slow ,progressive way.
      nope not saying anything about americans collecting their Social Security. in order for the next generation to recieve it..we gotta fix it.
      Now we agree on something yes we need to reform from waste and fraud, and very strong yes that instead of paying welfare we need to put people to work. One problem I have is those that can work refuse. I know one personally, i offered him employment..his response was" what? and screw up free money?" damn i was pissed. I see him in the store buying beer and cigs from yep... his welfare check.
      If the aforementioned is your intent of safety nets...in general yes we need to protect them and keep them.
      we do need to make cut in other ares though, and there are many out there. I'll give ask a simple one. Should the government have a media outlet in thiis day of the interne and like?

    • 4 months ago
  • jimstoner
    • 0
      jimstoner  
    • cmdinc:

      I think the individual you speak of that can work but refuses to, is the exception, not the norm, and the fact that the vast majority of welfare recipients are back on their feet within 3 or 4 years can attest to that.

      I don’t think any government should have their own media outlet. I don’t like the idea of media outlets touting one ideology over another for that matter. Let the average citizen tout one ideology over another in forums like this and let’s have the journalists give us well investigated and unbiased news reports. I do however support publicly funded media broadcasting. It seems the only way to keep corporate or ideological influence out of journalism.

    • 4 months ago
  • 2warsoffbooks
    • +4
      2warsoffbooks  

    • Guess where I stand on military spending!

      I heard today that the defense department has over 200 golf courses built and maintained at some of our overseas military bases.

    • 4 months ago
  • cmdinc
  • Frosty46
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • cmdinc
    • -3
      cmdinc  
    • Frosty46:

      thats right...liberals the understanding and compassionate...until someone disagrees with them. So if i understand you correctly i am a criminal and a thug..and all republicans are low lifes. maybe you could stand some wathcing with that attitude...my grandmother would have washed your mouth with soap

    • 4 months ago
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • 2warsoffbooks
    • +2
      2warsoffbooks  
    • Gordon_Shumway:

      Well get out the portable de-fib-ulator. That's a machine that makes Republicans tell the truth just before they die!

      May as well demand closing all 750 overseas bases then. (We don't want to negotiate like BO. )

    • 4 months ago
  • EvilDoer
    • +3
      EvilDoer  
    • Gordon_Shumway:

      Gotta start somewhere is right. Sure would be nice if we could stop that base being built in South Korea at the Jeju Islands. That would be win/win because it would save the environment too.

    • 4 months ago
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • 2warsoffbooks
    • +3
      2warsoffbooks  
    • Gordon_Shumway:

      Well, yesterday I googled overseas bases and started to complie a list. After almost three hours I had only finished Germany and Italy both of which had over 100 separate facilities or bases. It is mind boggling.

    • 4 months ago
  • FoosMaster
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • Gordon_Shumway
  • mrpuma2u
    • +6
      mrpuma2u  

    • Don't forget that lots of the Dept. Of Energy budget is actually nukiller weapons research, and so that is really defense spending disguised as something else.

    • 4 months ago
  • dubscorleone
  • Leen61
  • MSII
  • letsliveinpeace
    • +5
      letsliveinpeace  
    • Leen61:

      Exactly! We don’t have a spending problem, we have a military spending problem, and we had a Bush, Cheney, war spending problem. President Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex and boy was he right. Defense contractors are more of a problem now than Al Qaeda is.

    • 4 months ago
  • Leen61
  • wally60
  • MSII
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • Frosty46
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • H3ADLINE
    • +9
      H3ADLINE  

    • Once empires peak in their ability to expand their power, they tend to spend ever increasing amounts of time and money maintaining that power infrastructure. This dynamic, along with decreasing social mobility as the ruling class becomes further entrenched, eventually causes the rest of the social system to collapse under its weight. Empires die when they are not expending. This is partly why the United States has been more or less in a constant state of war for the past century.

    • 4 months ago
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • artemis6
  • Forgotten_Echo
    • +5
      Forgotten_Echo  

    • For the most part, I wrote this for another post which I commented on, but it can fit here as well. I think the GOP is in for a huge eye opener within the next couple of months.

      Little does the GOP seem to realize, they have been out-manuevered before the debt-ceiling debate has even begun. The GOP has nothing at all to bargin with, other than a possibl vain attempt to shut down the government if the President refuses to deal with them on their terms.

      The Bush-Era tax cuts are no longer an issue, nor is the extension on unemployment benefits. What the GOP thinks they have to barter with is the debt-ceiling. The GOP is so caught up in their own rhetoric that they have forgotten that they had already authorized the payment of the debts coming due. It is President Obama that has the upper hand, and much like an old card shark, he has been able to hide the ace up his sleeve from not only the GOP, but from all of us as a whole. Yes, Obama has hidden his agenda to deal with the GOP from even us, the People!

      The Constitution gives the Executive branch the authority to carry out all matters on which legislation has been passed. The incurred debt, by means laid out in the Constitution was rightfully authorized by the legislation, and the bills allowing the payment of these debts was put before the President to sign into law. The payment of that debt is no longer a matter before the Congress, it is a matter before the President.

      So, does he invoke the 14th amendment in order to bypass Congress and the debt ceiling? There is no need to. Congress has already passed the needed legislation in which that debt was incurred. It is now a matter of the President to see that the acts of duly passed legislation are carried out. Why not just instruct the Treasury to pay the bills? Can it get any simplier than that?

      At that point, what cards are the GOP left holding? Nothing more than the looming sequestration cuts that are due to take effect at the end of February. Obama has already put forth propsals for cuts in the "entitlement" programs which would have no effect on the actual payments being made. The cuts Obama proposed were in the adminstration of those programs, cutting away at the enormous waste in each.

      Now comes the real kicker! This would mean that the GOP would have to shallow the 10% cutbacks in military spending, along with cutbacks in Homeland security and the CIA. You bet your bottom dollar the GOP would give away the farm to keep that from happening, and exactly what do the have to barter with once the debt-ceiling isn't an issue?

      Tax rate increases are coming on the wealthy! The meager amounts recieved in the bartering of the fiscal cliff were only the beginning. The GOP was so focused on making Obama a one-term President, they didn't even feel the rug get pulled out from under them.

    • 4 months ago
  • FoosMaster
  • MSII
  • 2warsoffbooks
  • FoosMaster
  • cpad
    • +8
      cpad  

    • It would sure be nice to see some of this money diverted to fight a war against global warming and a war against poverty at home.

    • 4 months ago
  • LivingPong
    • +9
      LivingPong  
    • IceKat:

      Is that UK temperatures? UK temperatures are not global temperatures. A warming trend can not be cherry picked from just 16 years in just one particular area. Global average temperatures have increased over the last one hundred years and this has been widely studied across many countries. The oceans have absorbed 55% of carbon emissions over the last two hundred and now have reached their capacity to absorb further emissions which keep increasing. Further warming of the oceans causes them to start releasing the carbon they have absorbed and large portions of our oceans are now starting to warm or have already increased in temperature in a number of locations.

      Sea level rise has already increased by 17cm and continues to rise.

    • 4 months ago
  • sedwin
  • MSII
  • MSII
  • mrpuma2u
  • Frosty46
  • FoosMaster
  • letsliveinpeace

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