More Than 53 Percent of Your Tax Bill Goes to the Military
Tuesday 13 April 2010
by: Dave Lindorff, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed
Your tax dollars at war.
If you're like me, now that we're in the week that federal income taxes are due, you are finally starting to collect your records and prepare for the ordeal. Either way, whether you are a procrastinator like me, or have already finished and know how much you have paid to the government, it is a good time to stop and consider how much of your money goes to pay for our bloated and largely useless and pointless military.
The budget for the 2011 fiscal year, which has to be voted by Congress by this October 1, looks to be about $3 trillion, not counting funds collected for Social Security (since the Vietnam War, the government has included the Social Security Trust Fund in the budget as a way to make the cost of America's imperial military adventures seem smaller in comparison to the total cost of government). Meanwhile, the military share of the budget works out to about $1.6 trillion.
That figure includes the Pentagon budget request of $708 billion, plus an estimated $200 billion in supplemental funding, called "overseas contingency funding" in euphemistic White House-speak), to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, some $40 billion or more in "black box" intelligence agency funding, $94 billion in non-DoD military spending, $100 billion in veterans benefits and health care spending, and $400 billion in interest on debt raised to pay for prior wars and the standing military.
The 2011 military budget, by the way, is the largest in history, not just in actual dollars, but in inflation-adjusted dollars, exceeding even the spending in World War II, when the nation was on an all-out military footing.
Military spending in all its myriad forms works out to represent 53.3 percent of total US federal spending.
It's also a budget that is rising at a faster pace than any other part of the budget (with the possible exception of bailing out crooked Wall Street financial firms and their managers). For the past decade, and continuing under the present administration, military budgets have been rising at a nine percent annual clip, making health care inflation look tiny by comparison.
US military spending isn't just half of the US budget. It is also half of the entire global spending on war and weaponry. In 2009, according to the venerable War Resisters League, US military spending accounted for 47 percent of all money spent globally on war, weapons and military preparedness. What makes that staggering figure particularly ridiculous is that America's allies - countries like France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan - account for another 21 percent of the world's military spending. Fully 12 of the top spenders among big military-spending nations are either allies of the US or are friendly countries like Brazil and India. That is to say, America and its friends and allies account for more than two-thirds of all military spending worldwide.
China, in contrast, probably the closest thing to a real "threat" to American interests because of America's treaty commitments to the island nation of Taiwan, and China's claim that it is a part of the PRC, spends only some $130 billion on its military, much of which is actually devoted to maintaining military control of the country's own 1.3 billion people, some of whom might prefer to be independent, or to be freer.
The next biggest military spender, Russia, spends less than $80 billion a year on its decrepit military, and isn't even technically an enemy of the US anymore. Its military is largely busy keeping restive regions from spinning off from the mother country, anyhow.
Meanwhile, Iran, which the White House and Congress are portraying as America's arch enemy despite its not having invaded another country in hundreds of years, isn't even on the list of the top 17 military big spenders. Iran's current military budget is a teensy $4.8 billion, about the same as the estimated $5 billion spent on the military by North Korea - America's other "major enemy." Each of those country's military budgets is about one-quarter of the military budget of Australia, or a third of the military budget of the Netherlands.
Just to give one an idea of how small $4.8 billion is in comparison to the $1.6 trillion that the US is spending each year on war and planning for war, that number is roughly what the Pentagon plans to spend over the next year on child care and youth programs, morale and recreation programs and commissaries on its bases! It's about what the Pentagon will spend acquiring replacement Seahawk, Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters this year.
For the average American, what all this means is that of every dollar you send to the IRS, 53 cents will be going to pay for blowing stuff up, fattening the wallets of colonels, admirals and generals, bloating the portfolios of investors in military industries, and of course funding bonuses paid to executives of those companies, and the campaign chests and expense accounts of members of Congress who vote for these outlandish budgets. Your money will also be going to pay for the salaries and the bullets of those brave heroes over in Afghanistan who are executing kids, killing pregnant women (and then digging out the bullets and claiming they were stabbed by their families), and for the anti-personnel weapons that are creating legions of legless Afghani kids.
Next time you hear that the government needs to cut funds for providing medical care to the children of laid-off workers, or that supplemental unemployment funds are running out, next time you hear that federal funds that are needed to fund extra teachers at your school are being cut, or that Social Security benefits need to be cut back, or the retirement age needs to be increased to 70, next time you hear that your local post office has to be shut down for lack of funds, next time you hear that Medicare benefits need to be reduced, think about that 53 percent of your tax payment that's going to finance the most enormous war machine the world has ever known.
And ask yourself: Is this really necessary? Is this really where I want my money going?
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-area journalist. His latest book is "The Case for Impeachment" (St. Martin's Press, 2010). His work is available at: www.thiscantbehappening.net
All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.
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Bill Clinton actually did
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 10:51 — Lawrence Seib (not verified)Bill Clinton actually did slightly reduce military spending and social spending, and look at the results, budget surplus. Now is NOT the time to reduce the budget but we can sure cut back on all military spending thatdoes not contribute 100% to U.S. jobs. Decommission over seas military bases and be sure to not let factories over seas build our military equipment!
For those interested in
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 10:56 — Dave Lindorff (not verified)For those interested in researching this on their own, the WRL has an updated analysis at:
http://www.warresisters.org/files/FY2011piechart.pdf
My numbers are slightly different. I added the secret intelligence budgets, which were accidently blurted out a few years ago in a Congressional hearing as being $37 billion. I've increased that to $40 billion, but it is probably really closer to $50 billion or more, since the CIA has been ramping up, and is running the Predator operation, which must cost a fortune. I used $200 billion as the "contingency cost" of the two wars, instead of the Obama administration's estimate of $158 billion, because every year the government has grossly underestimated what the wars would cost that year and has come to Congress for supplemental funding. I also learned that the VA budget for care of veterans for 2011 is $123 billion, not the $100 billion listed here.
Most of the rest of the data comes straight from government sources available on line.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
In the Reagan years, they
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:09 — Carl (not verified)In the Reagan years, they shifted some military retirement costs over to the Dept. of Treasury, so that around $30 billion a year now. Also, most of the Dept. of Energy budget is for nuclear weapons.
Several billion more in tax free combat pay and housing allowances. Our military people get sales tax free shopping while military homes don't pay local property taxes, so add a few billion dollars more for tax breaks that burden local communities.
All the weapons we provide our allies are paid for by the state department.
Such a misleading column.
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:24 — Anonymous (not verified)Such a misleading column. Why do you hate the truth? Is that why this site is called 'truth out' by throwing it OUT in the first place?
US Military Spending 4.06% of GDP (2005 est.) NOT 53% of Federal Spending. CIA facts listing the US as #28 in the World for military spending percent of GDP. Look it up.
Well THANK GOD our tax dollars are spent on behalf of the military and the defense of this nation since that is the #1 ROLE of government. It's NOT health care, welfare, housing projects, envirowacko extremism, etc.; it's DEFENSE.
Another thing there ISN'T a Social Security Trust Fund; it's money taken from the GENERAL FUND! That's why the Social Security System is BROKE. The democrat party uses it as a slush fund and damn the consequences or those that need it. Any reasonable individual would ask why if you pay into a program all of your life so you have something when you retire only to have the Democrats in Congress RAISE THE TAX RATE ON SOCIAL SECURITY! It's a scam. Reasonable attempts to reform it by the Bush Administration were erroneously slimed by Democrats who don't give a rats ass about you, but they only care about the POWER they have OVER YOU. Wake up if you really want the truth.
Great piece. Another place
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:41 — Anonymous (not verified)Great piece. Another place to find data on the insanity that is the US Military Industrial Complex can be found here.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending
{Tue, 04/13/2010 - 16:24 —
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:46 — jack kane (not verified){Tue, 04/13/2010 - 16:24 — Anonymous (not verified)} is either joking or insane.
If anything, Lindroff's figure is an underestimate, as others pointed out.
One can convincingly argue that it is a citizen's duty NOT to pay federal taxes in these circumstances. Ironically, many people aren't paying taxes these days - because they are broke.
Whenever the worthless shitheads in Washington whine about 'fiscal irresponsibility' and 'austerity' and all that other drivel, remember they spend billions on guns and bank welfare without the slightest hesitation. Remember this and remind it to every person around you. We need a counter-propaganda campaign to curb the influence of the magnificent right-wing brainwashing machine.
GDP is not the same as the
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 11:59 — Dave Lindorff (not verified)GDP is not the same as the US budget. The fact that the US spends 4.06% of GDP on the military doesn't contradict that it spends 53% of the budget on the military. Actually, that 4% figure is low, because that figure doesn't include a lot of spending that is actually military, such as the DOE budget, most of the Homeland Security Budget, the secret intelligence budget, the VA, and the interest on prior war debt. It's actually over 5%. And that is a huge number. Our allies, like Japan, Germany, france, et al, spend closer to 1% of their GDP on their military. 5% is huge.
"Look it up" yourself.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
There most certainly is a
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 12:01 — David Lindorff (not verified)There most certainly is a Social Security Trust Fund.
It's true that currently because of the recession, more money is being paid out of it than is being put in, but that's a far cry from saying it doesn't exist.
"Look it up."(We don't deal in Tea Bagger fantasies here)
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Anon @16:24. The CIA
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 16:00 — Anonymous (not verified)Anon @16:24. The CIA presents exactly what the budget says. but the defense budget is not anywhere near what the cost is, or what the spend it. Lindorff did a pretty good job of summarizing the most blatant, but in reality every department in the government has some piece of military spend in it. Environment pays for the clean up of old military sites, transportation pays for highways, all built to military spec, NASA has covert military, as an earlier post noted, DOE for weapons research. Other depts pay for harbor dredging so the big ships can get in and out. Survivor benefits are paid to service children out of SocSec. Most of these numbers are so well buried that it is impossible to determine what is and is not military spending, but count on the fact that it is everywhere.
Another GREAT piece! Perhaps
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 16:17 — Anonymous (not verified)Another GREAT piece! Perhaps the readers should know that a huge % is also going to the insane, racist so-called "drug war" and the prison industrial complex. The ignorant right-wingers always like to throw the totally irrelevant % of GNP number out there. I suppose the country needs to go completely down the toilet before they get it.
16:24 seems to have
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 16:22 — Anonymous (not verified)16:24 seems to have forgotten about supplementals Such as the 33 Billion that is being deliberated this week. GDP largely misses as a measure of Defense Spending, this is well known, Does rampant militarism exist in part because of obscurity? Along the lines of "out of sight, out of mind"?
GDP is a very weak argument, but expect it from the Bagger/FAUX news crowd, followed perhaps by some delusion that the Constitution mandates fighter jets. (This is the best article I've seen on TD in months! )
Mr.Lindorff is incorrect
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 17:31 — Anonymous (not verified)Mr.Lindorff is incorrect about the Social Security trust fund. There is a fund but it is filled with government bonds, essentially IOU's that are a promise to pay.
To best illustrate the problem a description of the problem was best penned by someone else, David Henderson. To paraphrase; Let's say that you have a child that will want to attend college in ten years. The sum that will be needed is $100,000. To put aside this money each year you place an IOU in a jar for $10,000. At the end of the time period you empty the jar and then try to figure out how to come up with the actual money. Your options are to earn more and spend less, borrow, or sell assets. In scenario B you skip the IOU charade, advance to the final step and counsel your child on the how character building it is just to go straight to work. The government faces the same problem. At some point they will have to come up with a way to redeem the bonds and provide the actual money. What is a fantasy is that there is some enormous pile of cash just sitting there waiting to be disbursed. As for it being the Democrats that are at fault, that is wrong too. Both the Republicans and the Democrats have caused the problem. If the politicians in Washington had invested the money in a sovereign wealth fund that dealt in real dollars there most likely wouldn't be a problem.
A good point about other
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 17:49 — Dave Lindorff (not verified)A good point about other military costs. A friend at Veterans for Peace spends a lot of time going up to Graterford Prison in PA to work with incarcerated veterans. He says the prisons are filled with vets, many of whom are there because of their PTSD problems, which have led to drug use and petty crime engaged in to feed their habits. The costs of arresting, trying and incarcerating these poor victims of our wars should also be included in the annual costs of war, though much of those costs are born by the states, not the federal government, and show up as state taxes and local and county taxes--another good point to note--there are plenty of other state and local costs caused by the military.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
To bait whistleblowers to
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 18:22 — Jade Queen (not verified)To bait whistleblowers to this site, it would probably help not to throw around gratuitous put-downs. The people most upset about waste in a supply chain for 700 offshore bases are the people most demoralized by having to deal with it on a daily basis. Some of them drink tea or beer rather than espresso. Can the peace yurt have more than one beverage? C'mon guys, the forces of opaqueness want good people running too much adrenaline to think straight. Is it possible to use catalysts and run the discussion with less heat-beat-treat-concrete? Just asking.
Gosh, golly gee, all these
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 22:05 — Floresta (not verified)Gosh, golly gee, all these years I've been sayin' 51%! Thanks for the correction!
David you say "It's true
Tue, 04/13/2010 - 22:16 — AndrewS (not verified)David you say "It's true that currently because of the recession, more money is being paid out of it than is being put in". Not true, SS tax collections are currently exceeded by payouts, but with the interest earned on the 2.5 trillion in bonds, we are still growing the trust fund balance although more slowly since we are not reinvesting 100% of earned interest.
And to brain-dead Anonymous, if you have any US Treasuries in your retirement portfolio I have a great deal for you. I will give you 10 cents on the dollar for those worthless IOUs. Turn off Fox you idiot and take an economics class. Or maybe just start with "Economics for Dummies". If that's too hard try "Economics for F'in Retards". I think Sarah Palin wrote the forward on that one.
I think it's about time the
Wed, 04/14/2010 - 15:28 — Bob (not verified)I think it's about time the US stopped trying to be the world policeman. But, I am offended by this article.
Should we be taking a hard look at the missions we send the military on? Absolutely. Should we be scrutinizing it's expenditures to guard against fraud, waste and abuse? Of course.
But to call the military useless and pointless....Well, that just pisses me off. Mr. Lindoff is clearly an idiot with no comprehension of the threats this country faces and no appreciation for the sacrifices made to keep his sorry ass safe & free.
Mr. Lindoff, you are a dilettante. You owe a great deal to the military. And, all you can do is insult it & complain that not enough money is being taken from those that have earned it and given to those who haven't. I have no respect for you.
Yeah those great threats...
Wed, 04/14/2010 - 18:04 — Anonymous (not verified)Yeah those great threats... WMD (Big Oil), The Taliban (Caspian Pipeline). I thank the military for saving me from The Domino Theory (Agent Orange), and now yellowcake plutonium. Good job Brownie! Bring it on!
Let's see.
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 08:23 — Dave Lindorff (not verified)Let's see. Threats...Hmmmm.
1. Terrorism: Our military might did nothing to stop 9-11. And having massively expanded our military since 9-11, and gone to war in Iraq and Afghanistan at a cost of $200 billion a year, have we reduced terrorism at all? No. So it would seem military might has little or nothing to do with protecting us against terrorism.
2. Invasion by foreign enemies.
Who are we afraid of? China? They need their army to prevent unrest at home, and to keep territories from seceeding. Same for Russia.
Maybe France? Nah. They're too busy funding their health care system, and keeping their people healtier than us. Same with Germany. Oh I know. Iran, with its $4.8-billion defense budget, or maybe North Korea, with it's $5 billion defense budget.
3. Grenada? Well you never know. We sure whipped their asses back in the day, but they might come back, full of thoughts of revenge.
4. Cuba? Venezuela? Oh, please.
The truth is there is not a country in the world that could threaten the US. If the US military budget was slashed by 80%, and nukes were cut back to a couple missiles and maybe one Trident sub, no country on earth would dare threaten this country.
To think otherwise is simply delusional paranoia.
Dave Lindorff
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Just tell us how much money
Thu, 04/15/2010 - 12:27 — Gerry (not verified)Just tell us how much money is going to Israel!
Look - I'd love to believe
Fri, 04/16/2010 - 12:36 — zensunni (not verified)Look - I'd love to believe this column, but you don't cite any sources whatsoever. I am inclined to believe we spend quite a bit of our tax money on military upkeep (since we like to bomb the hell out of people that aren't white every few years), but without sources, I just can't believe this is accurate. 86.66% of all statistics are made up...
The constitution forbids the
Sun, 04/18/2010 - 04:48 — Bodene (not verified)The constitution forbids the U.S. from even having a standing army because the founding fathers knew we would be in everyone else's business. Look it up. I'm not an anti war believer but I just thought I would bring that little fact to light...mainly because it is such a political hot spot for greed power and money for the elite and seems to bring little good for the price we pay..
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