The Financial Crisis And The U.S. Military Budget

A U.S. soldier stands guard near a damaged military vehicle after a bomb attack in Baquba, 65km (40 miles) northeast of Baghdad October 8, 2008. A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest killed seven people and wounded 20 on Wednesday in Baquba, capital of Iraq's volatile Diyala province north of Baghdad, police said. REUTERS/Stringer(IRAQ)

Financial Crisis Could Put Crimp In Defense Spending Plans -- McClatchy Washington

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. economy in crisis and military spending at its highest level since World War II, military officials and experts are worrying that America may have to start reining in defense spending.

In the fiscal year that just ended, the U.S. spent $694.2 billion on defense, up 52 percent from the 2000 defense budget in constant dollars. (That year, the department spent $292 billion.) The fiscal 2008 total includes $514.2 billion in the defense budget and another $180 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been financed through so-called "supplemental" budgets.

Eight years of borrowing to pay for the Iraq and Afghan wars, coupled with an aging baby boomer population, growing health care costs and a push to enlarge the Army, could force legislators to make tough decisions about which needs should take priority, and the next president to reassess how much the military can do.

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My Comment: If the U.S. military was operating at World War II levels (40% GDP), the U.S. Defense budget will be north of $5 trillion dollars. Even though many of us wish that monies could be spent on non-military matters, I am a realist and I know that there will be no decrease in the U.S. Defense budget