The Bottomless Pit

According to the website, Cost of War:

To date, the total cost of war that has been allocated by Congress is $1.26 trillion, with $815 billion to Iraq and $445.1 billion to Afghanistan. The numbers include both military and non-military spending such as reconstruction. Spending includes only incremental costs, those additional funds that are expended due to the war. For example, soldiers' regular pay is not included but combat pay is included. Potential future costs, such as future medical care for soldiers and veterans wounded in the war, are not included. These numbers do not account for the wars being deficit-financed or that taxpayers will need to make additional interest payments on the national debt due to these deficits...

That is a mind-boggling number! Over $1 trillion. As is noted in the quote above, this eye-popping amount doesn't include a number of future costs nor deficit-financing. Just as important, it doesn't include ANY of the costs for our new imperial war in Libya.

In terms of last year's federal budget, the National Priorities Project has figured up how each federal dollar broken down is distributed. Leading the way is $0.274 - military. Add to this $0.138 - interest on the national debt (most ALL of it to pay for past wars) and $0.039 - veterans' benefits and we get $0.451 of every dollar spent on defense.

But that's not even all of it. As many economists have pointed out, a lot of the spending on defense is spread throughout the budget. This money gets hidden in an assortment of far-flung categories as a mechanism to lower the amount that most people will notice. Taking this into account, it is a reasonable guess than more than 50 cents of every dollar is pegged for one or more aspects of the military and "national security."

So, with the military-industrial complex garnering more than one-half of every tax dollar, one would hope that the $39+ billion budget-cutting stopgap measure agreed to by Rep. John Boehner and President Obama would include a few reductions in this obvious engine that is fueling our ever-burgeoning national deficit.

Think again.

As reported by Sahil Kapur at Raw Story,

Among the casualties were the Environmental Protection Agency, which took a $1.6 billion hit. Spending on health care was also slashed, including over $1 billion from funds to combat HIV/AIDS, and $600 million for community health centers. Hundreds of millions were cut from a range of education programs, and hundreds of millions more from research on science and energy.

Despite the urgent need for these dramatic cuts, defense spending rose to $513 billion, up from $508 billion in fiscal 2010, according to a summary (PDF) of the measure released by the House of Representatives and confirmed by Senate Democrats...

As many pundits in the alternative press have pointed out again and again and again, we can't seriously attack the deficit WITHOUT making huge cuts to defense spending.

But, as can be seen, Congress is set to do the exact opposite. Rather than decrease defense spending, they plan to thrown even more of our money into this bottomless pit! Of course, you and I know what that means. It means that, on top of the already egregious proposed budget cuts, they will have to cut even more to make up for the money that the military-industrial complex is swallowing up into their ever-widening mouths.

To put it in the common vernacular, we're not just getting screwed -- we're being gang banged on stage and, like in a peep show, Congress and the wealthy elite sit titillated in the next room vicariously enjoying each painful thrust!!