The Pentagon’s Runaway Budget
March 8th, 2010Via: antiwar.com:
With his decision to boost defense spending, President Obama is continuing the process of re-inflating the Pentagon that began in late 1998 — fully three years before the 9/11 attacks on America. The FY 2011 budget marks a milestone, however: The inflation-adjusted rise in spending since 1998 will probably exceed 100 percent in real terms by the end of the fiscal year. Taking the new budget into account, the Defense Department has been granted about $7.2 trillion since 1998, when the post-Cold War decline in defense spending ended.
The rise in spending since 1998 is unprecedented over a 48-year period. In real percentage terms, it’s as large as the Kennedy-Johnson surge (43 percent) and the Reagan increases (57 percent) combined. Whether one looks at the entire Pentagon budget or just that part not related to the wars, current spending is above the peak years of the Vietnam War era and the Reagan years. And it’s set to remain there. Looking forward, the Obama administration plans to spend more on the Pentagon over the next eight years than any administration since World War II.
Research Credit: ottilie
Wow! And once again, “incompetence” pays off beyond their wildest dreams! The PNAC guys are getting EVEN MORE than they wanted back in the good ol’, pre-“catastrophic and catalyzing event” days, as delineated in “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”. Imagine that…
@anothernut – “incompetence” pays off
yeah, just like public education — the worse it gets, the more tax-slaves’ money is thrown at it.