The Pentagon's Lame Defense Budget #2

Just a follow up from yesterday's post. Out of a $3 trillion federal budget overall, only $500 billion is going to the military or 1/6 of the total. An article in the New York Times seems shocked at this figure, but less so at the bloated social spending of $2.5 trillion. Such spending on America's poor flies in the face of those who declare that America doesn't care for its less affluent citizens, yet the current crop of liberal candidates plan to spend EVEN MORE, if allowed by the electorate.

Last week there was a surge on the blogosphere of how the defense budget, which takes up only 4% of our GNP, is somehow bankrupting the country. This is silly paranoia and false leftist propaganda. That said, perhaps if the rich nations of the West, such as in Europe and the Far East, would care more for their own security, rather than relying on the much maligned but indispensable "American Empire", even than that figure could be reduced.