Liberal Rag Salon Says Our Troops Are Dangerous Because They Spend Money That Could Go to Welfare
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The anti-American leftists at Salon.com have a Memorial Day message for us all: Our troops are a danger to the country. Why? Because they have a budget that should go to welfare spending. No, really.
Before we even get to the stupidity that is this Salon.com article, we should note that spending on the military is one of the few expenditures that is actually legal because it is written right into the U.S. Constitution.
Along with welfare, which is decidedly not in the Constitution, little of the spending that goes on in Washington is actually Constitutional. In contrast spending on the military is one of the few things that the founders made sure to specify.
But let’s give these dolts at Salon their say. Here is their argument of why “The U.S. military is a national security threat.”
The American military budget is massive.
At $610 billion, it dwarfs the combined military budgets of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, the UK, India and Germany (see chart below). Put another way, one third of all military spending the world comes from the United States. The problem is, however, that the American military budget may be crowding out other crucial investment
As the era of American hegemony winds down, it’s more important than ever for America to be able to demonstrate soft power. That means first, an American model that works, for other countries to emulate. But further, it means a highly educated population, long-term investment in infrastructure, adequate healthcare, an society based, above all else, on opportunity. However, it’s likely that the military budget precludes these important services.
The most important cost of our bloated military budget is investment in other important government functions. As the chart below from CBO shows, defense spending has historically consumed more than half of the entire U.S. government discretionary budget (spending on veterans eats up mandatory spending as well). In 2014, discretionary defense spending was double Medicaid spending, and about equal to Medicare spending.
Given that the U.S. is already a relatively low-spending country, the military only further diminishes our meager safety net.
Again, unlike our military budget, notice that our “meager safety net” is not Constitutionally mandated spending.
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