A Huge Stinking Black Hole

Trey Smith

US spending on intelligence has doubled since 9/11, with the National Security Agency and the CIA taking the biggest share, according to the top secret budget leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

Details of the $52.6bn request for 2013 by America's 16 spy agencies were revealed by the Washington Post on Thursday.

The NSA has requested $10.45bn from Congress, while the CIA is asking for $14.7bn. The NSA has long been regarded as the most productive of the spy agencies, so the higher spending by the CIA is one of the biggest surprises in the four-volume, 1,452-page budget.
~ from US Intelligence Spending Has Doubled Since 9/11, Top Secret Budget Reveals by Ewen MacAskill and Jonathan Watts ~

Utilizing this entry -- 2013 United States Federal Budget -- it is just amazing how much the federal government spends on spying when compared to actual societal needs. For example, while $52.6 billion is earmarked for "intelligence gathering", the Department of the Interior (National Parks and such) only gets $13.5 billion and the Environmental Protection Agency comes in with a meager $8.9 billion! Here we are facing environmental calamity and the spy budget is 6 times greater than the EPA.

Talk about mixed up priorities!!

But the picture is even worse if you add in all the costs of the military-intelligence-industrial complex (MIIC).

• Department of Defense: $672.9 billion
• Department of Veteran Affairs: $139.7 billion
• Department of Homeland Security: $55.4 billion
• National Intelligence Program: $52.6 billion
• Interest on the National Debt: $246 billion (most all of the interest is for past "unpaid for at the time" wars)

All told, the MIIC claimed a minimum of $1.16 trillion for FY 2013. (I say "minimum" because I'm certain that portions of other department's budgets also serve the needs of the MIIC.) Compare this minimum figure to the totality of the Department of Education's budget of $71.9 billion.  We open up the bank vault to pay for military aggression and spying, while stiff arming the educational needs of our citizens.

And again, look at the wide chasm between expenditures for MIIC versus the poor EPA.  The difference is almost ONE TRILLION FRICKING DOLLARS.  It's like for every penny the EPA gets, the MIIC receives 100 and more.  This represents insanity -- pure and simple.