The Defense beast needs to be starved

The Beast described in Revelations

The Defense beast has been consuming the treasure and blood of the US since World War II.  It is the basis of the crony capitalism that the GOP supports. 

The GOP likes to suggest that entitlements are choking the budget, but entitlements are primarily funded by FICA tax not Income tax. These funds are considered trust finds once the government collects them. 

To make matters worse, the federal government has been borrowing the excess FICA taxes collected and using the funds in general revenue stream that Income Tax primarily funds.

The trust funds taken are provided with government IOUs indicating the FICA over-payments need to be repaid. Remember Al Gore's lock box. This is what he was talking about. 

The government started combining trust (FICA) and federal income tax funds began during the Vietnam War. This made the human needs portion of the budget seem larger and the military portion smaller.

The War Resister's League reworked the federal budget to show where the general revenue funds are actually used. 

The War Resisters League notes that analysts differ on how much of the debt stems from the military. Some estimate are 50% to 60%.

The War Resisters use 80% because it believes if there had been no military spending, most of the national debt would have been eliminated. Some economists have estimated that 90 per cent of the National Debt was caused by past US wars.

The National Debt represents the accumulation of US annual deficits. 

The actual 2009 federal budget

This is what the federal government is really spending on defense.“Past military” represents veterans’ benefits plus 80% of the interest on the debt.

This is why the Defense beast needs to be starved. It is consuming half of our nation's blood and treasure. 

This is also why the public needs to be smarter about supporting hawkish candidates, most of who are in the GOP. After 911 Bush increased already bloated defense spending by 40 per cent. 

The Chinese appear to be smarter with their budget. China spends 1/6th what the US spends on defense and 4.5 times (9 per cent) on infrastructure. 

source: http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

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