Federal 'Defense' Spending Exceeds All State Outlays Combined

[unhappycamper]

Federal 'Defense' Spending Exceeds All State Outlays Combined
by Sherwood Ross | December 24, 2009 - 10:44am

The U.S. spends more for war annually than all state governments combined spend for the health, education, welfare, and safety of 308 million Americans.

Joseph Henchman, director of state projects for the Tax Foundation of Washington, D.C., says the states collected a total of $781 billion in taxes in 2008.

For a rough comparison, according to Wikipedia data, the total budget for what the Pentagon calls "defense" in fiscal year 2010 will be at least $880 billion and could possibly top $1 trillion. That's more than all the state governments collect.

Henchman says all American local governments combined (cities, counties, etc.) collect about $500 billion in taxes. Add that to total state tax take and you get over $1.3 trillion. This means Uncle Sam's Pentagon is sopping up nearly as much money as all state, county, city, and other governmental units spend to run the country.

If the Pentagon figure of $1 trillion is somewhat less than all other taxing authorities, keep in mind the FBI, the various intelligence agencies, the VA, the National Institutes of Health (biological warfare) are also spending on war-related activities.


Rest of article at: http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/25707



unhappycamper comment: And this does not include the $30 billion for another 30,000 boots on the ground in Afghanistan.

[Selatius]

1. Eisenhower put it in terms ordinary Americans could understand.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This is, I repeat, the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. ... Is there no other way the world may live?

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, "The Chance for Peace"

[theHandpuppet]

2. Thank you for that quote

If only we could hear sentiments and speeches like that coming from Washington today, rather than the drumbeat for more war. :(

[invictus]

7. +1

[Nikki Stone1]

8. +10,000

That should be an OP

[Mari333]

3. knr bookmarking

as people fight it out on the ground for their little nickels and dimes for this and that, they dont see the big picture. this is the big picture.
I can never understand someone who says they want healthcare for all but continually supports the defense dept blackhole of Money.

[Lasher]

4. And the US spends almost as much on 'defense' as all other countries in the world combined.

The United States spends more on medical care per person than any other country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year.

We are spending lots of money, but not much of it is spent on the right things.

[TexasObserver]

5. Recommend

[Mari333]

6. k

[invictus]

9. K&R