Psyche, Science, and Society

Deficit steal funnels money to defense budget

August 3rd, 2011

Among the obscenities in the Obama-McConnell deficit steal is that it actually give $50 billion more to the defense budget, thus effectively stealing from social welfare to finance the war industry, McClatchy reports:

The last-minute deal that Congress is considering to raise the federal debt limit probably will mean trillions of dollars in government spending reductions for most agencies. But one department stands to gain: the Pentagon.

Rather than cutting $400 billion in defense spending through 2023, as President Barack Obama had proposed in April, the current debt proposal trims $350 billion through 2024, effectively giving the Pentagon $50 billion more than it had been expecting over the next decade….

But the proposed figures — after weeks of drawn-out, vitriolic debate between both political parties — raise questions about what, if anything, could lead to substantial defense reductions. Military spending has more or less survived the drawdown of two wars and a domestic economic crisis. Even now, Congress can’t agree on how much to cut defense spending while maintaining U.S. military strength.

Tom Engelhardt reminds us that the $400 billion in “cuts” were never “cuts” anyway:

In little of the reporting on this was it apparent that Obama’s $400 billion in Pentagon “cuts” are not cuts at all — not unless you consider an obese person, who continues eating at the same level but reduces his dreams of ever grander future repasts, to be on a diet. The “cuts” in the White House proposal, that is, will only be from projected future Pentagon growth rates.

Paul Krugman is fond of calling the US government “an insurance company with an army.” If present trends continue, it will become simply an army.

Entry Filed under: Obama administration,War and Peace