Obama Cuts Domestic Spending, Increases Military Corporate Welfare
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01/05/2011
President Obama's decision to increase military spending will result in the greatest administrative military spending since World War II. This decision is being made despite extreme waste, fraud, abuse and corporate welfare in the military budget. At the same time, spending on "non-security" domestic programs—such as education, nutrition, energy and transportation—will be frozen, resulting in inflationary cuts to essential services for the American public in the future.
While these domestic programs constitute only 17% of total federal spending, they will sustain all of the proposed cuts. "[Obama's] proposal caps non-security spending at $447 billion for each of the next three fiscal years," stated Jo Comerford, executive director of the National Priorities Project. "During that time, inflation will erode the purchasing power of that total, requiring cuts in services in each successive year."
The consequences of cutting domestic spending will result in a further increase in the gap between the rich and the poor.
In contrast, military spending is roughly 55% of the discretionary spending in the current fiscal year, and will increase even more next year. According to projections by the Office of Management and Budget, the military budget will increase an additional $522 billion over the next decade.
The costs are staggering. For example, originally expected to cost $50 million, the estimated cost today for one F-35 plane is $113 million. The military branches plan to buy 2,450 of them, as part of a program that could total more than $323 billion.
In addition, there is widespread and continuing waste, fraud and abuse by the Pentagon and military contractors, resulting in welfare for the rich.
A recent hearing of the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan addressed a 111-page report on its initial investigations of the nation's heavy reliance on contractors. According to a release on the hearing, more than 240,000 contractor employees, about 80% of them foreign nationals, are working in Iraq and Afghanistan to support U.S. operations and projects. Contractor employees outnumber U.S. troops in the region.
"While contractors provide vital services, the commission believes their use has also entailed billions of dollars lost to waste, fraud and abuse due to inadequate planning, poor contract drafting, limited competition, understaffed oversight functions and other problems," the commission stated.
President Obama is continuing the process of reinflating the Pentagon spending that began in late 1998, three years before the 9/11 attacks. The rise in national defense spending since 1998 is as large as the Kennedy-Johnson surge (43%) and the Reagan increases (57%) put together. The radical increase in military spending now, compared to the World War II and Cold War eras, is justified by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, even if today's wars are taken out of the picture, there has still been a 54% increase since 1998.
Tom Engelhardt pointed out, "Here's an American reality: The Pentagon is our true welfare state, the weapons makers are our real 'welfare queens,' and we never stop shoveling money their way."
