Department of Defense spending Defense-related expenditure\t2012 Budget request & Mandatory spending DOD spending\t$707.5 billion\tBase budget + "Overseas Contingency Operations" FBI counter-terrorism\t$2.7 billion\tAt least one-third FBI budget. International Affairs\t$5.6–$63.0 billion\tAt minimum, foreign arms sales. State budget Energy Department, defense-related\t$21.8 billion\t Veterans Affairs\t$70.0 billion\t Homeland Security\t$46.9 billion\t NASA, satellites\t$3.5–$8.7 billion\tBetween 20% and 50% of NASA's total budget Veterans pensions\t$54.6 billion\t Other defense-related mandatory spending\t$8.2 billion\t Interest on debt incurred in past wars\t$109.1–$431.5 billion\tBetween 23% and 91% of total interest Total Spending\t$1.030–$1.415 trillion for 2012 Republicans don't think this is enough and want to raise DOD spending by 12-25 percent Lets look at Social Security the program that has to go according to Republicans During 2010, total benefits of $713 billion were paid out versus income (taxes and interest) of $781 billion, a $68 billion surplus. This surplus amount is commonly referred to as the "Social Security Trust Fund". The proceeds are paid into the U.S. Treasury where they may be used for other government purposes. Social Security spending will increase sharply over the next decades, largely due to the retirement of the baby boom generation. The number of program recipients is expected to increase from 44 million in 2010 to 73 million in 2030. Program spending is projected to rise from 4.8% of GDP in 2010 to 5.9% of GDP by 2030, where it will stabilize. heres the funny part The U.S. defense budget (excluding spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Homeland Security, and Veteran's Affairs) is around 5% of GDP. Maybe its time for our government to stop playing corporate enforcer with our military? maybe we don't need stealth bombers and 11 super carriers. I don't think most people know George W. Bush named a super carrier after himself when it was completed in 2006. Its a terrible thing to have a government more worried about making tanks, that ignores people who die every day from preventable illnesses they couldn't afford treatment for.
And considering the black budget of the CIA, we can assume that the actual amount of money spent on creating enemies to fight, is pretty high too. America is insane. A psychopath walking the Earth with malevolence and greed. War will do that, it drives people to madness, But thanks to our military, we can now kill more people faster than ever before! That's some real progress in the madness! I just hope we never run out of enemies, or those weapons may just turn back on us. Who spends trillions of dollars on weapons of mass destruction they do not intend to use? Oh, that's right, crazy people do that. America the Merciless.