US Defense Budget Concerns

[Jarhead0331]

A very cerebral and interesting discussion.

[Sir Slash]

I can't possibly respond without crossing the, 'political boundary' I'm not supposed to. I'll just say I find the arguments credible and not surprising at all given the priorities currently in Washington.

[Jarhead0331]

I just think the point that the military is pursuing a budgetary strategy that is appropriate given the particular policy objectives of both the prior and current administrations is interesting. So in other words, while the policy goals may be misguided, the military is taking the right steps to meet the objectives set by those calling the shots in Washington, misguided as they may be.

[Sir Slash]

I think the Military has always had to do that going back to Washington paying his troops out of his own pocket partially. The problem with that is sooner or later some politician sends the military in to do something and then cannot figure-out why they couldn't do whatever he/she ordered them to. Clinton in Mogadishu for one instance of many. 

[FarAway Sooner]

I'm conflicted.  On the one hand, I think shrinking our defense budget in the midst of the Ukrainian crisis sends the wrong signal to lots of people, Putin among them.

On the other hand, I think I view the defense budget differently than do many of you.  The primary purpose of defense spending, I think, is not to make America strong or to keep Americans safe.  It's to channel pork back to special interests and particular districts whose legislators enjoy placement on the right committees.  If that pork benefits our men and women in uniform, all the better.  But it's keeping the jobs in the congressional districts and the corporate executives well-paid as they go about their business that drives an awful lot of our military budget.  The military-industrial complex is alive and well in America today.

That's one of the reasons why an M-1 Abrams costs $4,300,000, a single Javelin anti-tank missile costs $220,000, while a Private in the US Army makes $22,000/year.  Each F-35 jet costs $138,000,000 but a Major in the Air Force makes $100,000 a year.  It's one of the major reasons why we have a military budget > $700BN, but we do a shitty job of taking care of the estimated 1,000,000 Iraq/Afghan veterans who struggle with PTSD in a given year.

I'd love it if we spent more of our defense budget keeping our soldiers safe and our country secure.  Instead, we spend it to keep our defense contractors well paid and our Congress members re-elected time after time after time.

I'll stop my rant.  I'd only add that the Budget recommended to Congress is very much a political document, and it's as much about messaging to your base as it is about what you actually want to settle on when it comes time to really make the sausage.  I was disappointed about the budget being so small, but I'll wait to see where we end up before I judge anybody too harshly.

[GDS_Starfury]

fwiw the F-35 now costs around $82 million per aircraft.  ;)
and while I agree that there is a lot of pork in the defense budget theres also a whole lot of meat in there as well.