It is being suggested (I won’t even bother to say exactly where, so as to dignify them) that those who are calling for reduction in this country’s military budget are disloyal and maybe even anti-American.
Maybe it is time to hear from one of those subversive, disloyal people and hold them up to exposure. Let’s start with this one:
“Modern weapons take food from the hungry and shelter from the homeless: 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.”
That’s from the last official speech given from his office by retiring US President and former US General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
But we must defend ourselves against all threats, now and in the future. Is the USA budget big enough to deal with threats from any other country? Here’s US military spending compared with the military budgets of the next four spenders.
World’s top 5 military spenders
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| The world’s top 5 military budgets in 2012. Figures sourced from the SIPRI Yearbook 2012. |
As impressive as that might be, the reality is, the USA annual military budget is larger than that of the top 15 military spenders in the world COMBINED.
For details, click here.
But we can afford it, right? I mean, we are the wealthiest country in the world, aren’t we?
Let’s see how much of our national treasure is spent on the military budget compared with what we spend on Education, Health Care, Highways and Bridges, New Rail and Subway Systems, General Cost of Government, etc.
US Federal Budget Analysis
FY12 Federal Budget Spending Estimates
for Fiscal Years 2011 – 2016
Click on any of the following for details of other years.
Not much better, hunh?
Now you know why the subway system in New Delhi is so modern, comfortable and beautiful while those in New York, Boston, Chicago are so old and tired – or totally non-existent in other major cities in the USA.
Now you know why the education levels of our population is becoming more and more like that of the poorest countries in the world.
Now you know why the survival rate of newborn babies in the US is lower than that of 32 of the 33 nations in the world that are considered “modern.” Countries with lower newborn death rates than the U.S. included Cuba, Malaysia, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.
Now you know why Americans spend 4.2 billion hours a year stuck in traffic at a cost of $78.2 billion a year–$710 per motorist. Roadway conditions are a significant factor in about one-third of traffic fatalities. Poor road conditions cost U.S. motorists $67 billion a year in repairs and operating costs–$333 per motorist; 33% of America’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition and 36% of the nation’s major urban highways are congested. The current spending level of $70.3 billion for highway capital improvements is well below the estimated $186 billion needed annually to substantially improve the nation’s highways.
Now, please go back and read what President Eisenhower said.