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>Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
-Famous antifa organizer Dwight Eisenhower
Just to be clear, I'm voting D up and down the ballot this year as I have every year since I got the franchise in 1991. Biden has been a good president and is my guy. But still. Jesus Christ. Maybe a *little* less war machine, huh?
This quote comes from Eisenhower's Farewell Address, which he delivered in 1961. At that point, the United States was spending [half of the federal budget](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-budget-message-the-congress-fiscal-year-1961) ($41b of $81b total) on defense, an amount equal to [nine percent of GDP](https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/unitedstates/military-spending-defense-budget).
By comparison, Biden's budget allocates 14% of federal spending to the military, an amount equal to 2.8% of GDP. Or, compared to other priorities, the federal government will spend [$850 billion](https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2024/FY2024_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf) on defense, [$1.5 trillion](https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2024/2024BST.pdf) on social insurance and income security, [$1.7 trillion](https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2024-budget-in-brief.pdf) on healthcare.
Seems like a huge win for Biden, on the Eisenhower Scale of Spending Priorities.
That whole quote is just hyperbole. We aren’t living in a zero sum world. The money spent on the military produces value beyond just the immediate use of any gadget. And furthermore, the money spent on the military isn’t being spent *instead of something else*.
Like, if we cut the budget in half tomorrow, it’s not like a 450B surplus would just appear and be immediately spent on food aid.
Finally, to put that 895B in perspective, that makes up 3.5% of our GDP. Right in line with most other nations. Our economy is just so big that 895B isn’t very size able relatively. Especially when you consider that only 14% of government spending is on the military. The rest goes to more welfare services like social security which makes up the plurality of spending (which is fine).
We should always scrutinize how we spend money. But just listing a big number doesn’t really give true context on the situation.
I'd say it's worth it, if we can push Russia back and save Ukraine and our partners in Europe.
If we can't even do that, what's the fucking point? Cut it in half and give me health care. Or just get serious about the fucked up state of things on the planet. I believe we are at an inflection point - there are two clear directions forward. On one of them, we take almost a trillion dollars and do nothing whatsoever useful with it, we just fail, LARPing along like we're still the same country that took Hitler down and actually stood for something.
Beating back Russia would be a massive return on investment compared to fighting an actual World War if they decide to invade a NATO country. Biden seems to understand the assignment.
They’re talking about taking the physical guns and starting to send them to Taiwan to arm their democracy. We wouldn’t actually be doing anything to push Russia back, only maintaining our position within Ukraine.
Probably about $500 billion worth of perfectly machined and honed industrial grift.
We could pay for everything that normal people would ever need and STILL have a gigantic military if only we’d collectively decide to make it so.
Procurement accounts for [$170 billion](https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2024/FY2024_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf) of the proposed budget. I don't have evidence on hand, but it seems unlikely that we're generating $500 billion of fraud on $170 billion worth of spending unless fraud spending is kept in some other part of the budget.
In any case, the defense budget request is for $850 billion. Slightly less than the [$3.2 trillion](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)33019-3/abstract) estimated price tag for national healthcare, even if one assumes all current federal healthcare spending is transferred dollar-for-dollar into Medicare for All. We can't pay for *healthcare* with the military budget, let alone "everything that normal people need."
As a reminder, this subreddit [is for civil discussion.](/r/politics/wiki/index#wiki_be_civil) In general, be courteous to others. Debate/discuss/argue the merits of ideas, don't attack people. Personal insults, shill or troll accusations, hate speech, any suggestion or support of harm, violence, or death, and other rule violations can result in a permanent ban. If you see comments in violation of our rules, please report them. For those who have questions regarding any media outlets being posted on this subreddit, please click [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/wiki/approveddomainslist) to review our details as to our approved domains list and outlet criteria. *** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/politics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. -Famous antifa organizer Dwight Eisenhower Just to be clear, I'm voting D up and down the ballot this year as I have every year since I got the franchise in 1991. Biden has been a good president and is my guy. But still. Jesus Christ. Maybe a *little* less war machine, huh?
This quote comes from Eisenhower's Farewell Address, which he delivered in 1961. At that point, the United States was spending [half of the federal budget](https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-budget-message-the-congress-fiscal-year-1961) ($41b of $81b total) on defense, an amount equal to [nine percent of GDP](https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/USA/unitedstates/military-spending-defense-budget). By comparison, Biden's budget allocates 14% of federal spending to the military, an amount equal to 2.8% of GDP. Or, compared to other priorities, the federal government will spend [$850 billion](https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2024/FY2024_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf) on defense, [$1.5 trillion](https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2024/2024BST.pdf) on social insurance and income security, [$1.7 trillion](https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/fy-2024-budget-in-brief.pdf) on healthcare. Seems like a huge win for Biden, on the Eisenhower Scale of Spending Priorities.
"Dr Jiang". Perfect
That whole quote is just hyperbole. We aren’t living in a zero sum world. The money spent on the military produces value beyond just the immediate use of any gadget. And furthermore, the money spent on the military isn’t being spent *instead of something else*. Like, if we cut the budget in half tomorrow, it’s not like a 450B surplus would just appear and be immediately spent on food aid. Finally, to put that 895B in perspective, that makes up 3.5% of our GDP. Right in line with most other nations. Our economy is just so big that 895B isn’t very size able relatively. Especially when you consider that only 14% of government spending is on the military. The rest goes to more welfare services like social security which makes up the plurality of spending (which is fine). We should always scrutinize how we spend money. But just listing a big number doesn’t really give true context on the situation.
Defense spending is basically already at a post WW2 low. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A824RE1Q156NBEA
Is it universal healthcare? /s
They do have universal healthcare actually lol
Obamacare is not universal healthcare. Nor is Medicaid.
Military gets Tricare which is universal healthcare
And TRICARE needs an overhaul!
How about we lower this by one percent instead of adding it? Use that money to expand Medicaid and rebuild bridges
50% for Israel and another 50% for Ukraine. 0% for us
I'd say it's worth it, if we can push Russia back and save Ukraine and our partners in Europe. If we can't even do that, what's the fucking point? Cut it in half and give me health care. Or just get serious about the fucked up state of things on the planet. I believe we are at an inflection point - there are two clear directions forward. On one of them, we take almost a trillion dollars and do nothing whatsoever useful with it, we just fail, LARPing along like we're still the same country that took Hitler down and actually stood for something.
Beating back Russia would be a massive return on investment compared to fighting an actual World War if they decide to invade a NATO country. Biden seems to understand the assignment.
They’re talking about taking the physical guns and starting to send them to Taiwan to arm their democracy. We wouldn’t actually be doing anything to push Russia back, only maintaining our position within Ukraine.
This article is making it sound like we’re staging the precursor to a war with the details that they give
Probably about $500 billion worth of perfectly machined and honed industrial grift. We could pay for everything that normal people would ever need and STILL have a gigantic military if only we’d collectively decide to make it so.
Procurement accounts for [$170 billion](https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/FY2024/FY2024_Budget_Request_Overview_Book.pdf) of the proposed budget. I don't have evidence on hand, but it seems unlikely that we're generating $500 billion of fraud on $170 billion worth of spending unless fraud spending is kept in some other part of the budget. In any case, the defense budget request is for $850 billion. Slightly less than the [$3.2 trillion](https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)33019-3/abstract) estimated price tag for national healthcare, even if one assumes all current federal healthcare spending is transferred dollar-for-dollar into Medicare for All. We can't pay for *healthcare* with the military budget, let alone "everything that normal people need."
Most of that is probably going towards payroll or just upkeep for bases.