GodZilla: The DoD Eats the Federal Budget

This speaks volumes: Washington Post

In the White House budget for the fiscal year ending in October 2007, Pentagon funding would increase by nearly 7 percent and, for the first time in Bush's presidency, claim more than half the government's expenditure on discretionary programs, those that get set each year. The $439.3 billion that the plan devotes to the military is 45 percent greater than the Pentagon budget when Bush took office five years ago.

Here's the skinny. The Federal government is quickly becoming the DoD plus entitlement programs. Everything else is getting squeezed out. These entitlement programs (social security and healthcare) are still the third rail of American politics and will stay that way. The problem is that once the DoD is shown to be ineffective at defending the US (and it will be once the next attacks occur), confidence in the only remaining function of the Federal system will be completely undermined. Reminder: The attackers on 9/11 IGNORED the DoD and future attackers will do the same.

Comments

[Andy]

Not only the $440B stated in the article, but add in the black budget at 30-40B, the supplementals for Iraq/Afghanistan at 100-120B, the Dept. of Energy slice of nuclear DOD at 10-15B and the costs of the VA (don't know off my head). Now you are talking about a $600B DOD budget.

[John Robb]

Right, its between 60-70% of all discretionary spending. The Federal system is in free-fall. The benefits of having it all are getting very thin on the ground.

[rjh]

Ignored the DoD? I recall looking out the window at the Pentagon burning. Hardly ignored. They targetted and hit the DoD HQ. People forget the Pentagon strike because it was not visually interesting for TV, was personally witnessed by less than 10% of those who personally witnessed the two towers strike, and because hitting a military target was more widely expected than hitting an economic infrastructure target.

[John Robb]

OK, what I was pointing out is how they ignored its defensive capabilities.

[jon]

Andy,
Don't forget about the portion of the national debt that was a result of military spending. We're still paying that off, plus interest.

[John Robb]

I should have called this post: DoDzilla, the monster that ate the Feds.