Activists protest America’s $698 billion dollar military budget during Global Day Against Military Spending. Obama unveils record $3.8 trillion budget. By Richard Wolf, USA TODAY WASHINGTON — President Obama sent Congress on Monday a record $3.8 trillion budget for 2011 that would boost war spending, trim some domestic spending and rely on $1.3 trillion in new borrowing.
The budget would be the third in a row with a deficit of more than $1 trillion, following this year's record $1.6 trillion, a figure the White House increased in its budget. The red ink would be cut in half by 2014, mostly by allowing tax cuts on families making more than $250,000 to expire in 2011. A year after proposing major increases for health care, energy and education, Obama is putting almost $30 billion more into the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, boosting homeland security and international spending, and proposing a three-year freeze on some domestic spending.
"We actually show how we pay for these investments while putting our country on a more fiscally sustainable path," Obama said. REPORT: U.S. Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001. By Judd Legum on April 11, 2011 at 10:00 am "REPORT: U.S.
Military Spending Has Almost Doubled Since 2001" A new report released today by SIPRI, a Swedish-based think tank, reveals that U.S. military spending has almost doubled since 2001. Obama Seeks Major Cuts in Defense Budget, Still World’s Largest. President Barack Obama’s U.S. budget proposal includes $671 billion for the defense department - a cut from the current year, but still by far the largest military budget in the world.
The U.S. military is fighting a war in Afghanistan and has nearly 50,000 troops in Iraq. But the wars are a relatively small and decreasing part of the defense budget. In the fiscal year starting in October, the president wants $118 billion for the two missions - $41 billion less than the current year and well under 20 percent of the total request. The overall proposed defense budget is five percent smaller than the current year, and more than 10 percent less than Pentagon officials had wanted for this year.
Big budget categories include salaries and benefits for America’s 2.3 million men and women in uniform, money to care for the wounded and funding for expensive, high-technology equipment. Defense Budget Resources 2011. A Radical Plan for Cutting the Defense Budget and Reconfiguring the U.S. Military - By Douglas Macgregor. In the spirit of spending wisely, here is my plan to reconfigure the military for the demands and threats of the 21st-century world and, in doing so, dramatically cut the Pentagon budget: Estimated annualized savings resulting from withdrawals from overseas garrisons and restructuring the United States' forward military presence: $239 billion The place to start reducing defense spending is with U.S. overseas commitments, which are vast.
Today, there are more than 317,000 active-duty U.S. military personnel stationed or deployed overseas. In the Central Command theater of operations, encompassing Iraq and Afghanistan, there are approximately 180,000 active-component personnel as well as over 45,000 reservists. Approximately 150,000 active-component U.S. military personnel are officially assigned to Europe and Asia. The United States long stayed secure without this kind of sprawling imperial apparatus.
Why does America need all these facilities? U.S. Military Spending Is Out Of Control: 12 Facts That Show That We Cannot Afford To Be The Police Of The World. Today, the United States has become the police of the world.
The U.S. military has a total of over 700 military bases in 130 countries around the world. Total military spending by the U.S. government is nearly equal to the combined military spending of the rest of the globe. Meanwhile, the federal government is literally drowning in debt. So if we make some significant cuts to military spending will we fix the national debt problem? Of course not. Not that we don’t need a strong military. But you know what? What possible justification could there possibly be for having U.S. troops in 130 different nations?
Why in the world do we still need huge contingents of troops in Germany and Japan? Look, it is about darn time that nations like Japan and Germany learned to defend themselves. We are spending so many resources patrolling the streets of Iraq and rounding up goat herders in Afghanistan that we aren’t even preparing ourselves for the real threats.