Below is a graph that shows where the defense budget will go depending on the variables currently in play.
Note: The two wars are separate from this chart through much of the last decade due to the fact that "emergency" spending bills by President Bush covered those conflicts.
I'm interested in hearing from you. If you were a politician in Washington who got to vote on the defense budget, which would you vote for and why? Where would you take it?
There's a Post Cold War scale down that would take things down to about $425 billion a year.
If the gov't can't get its shit together by New Year's Day, than we'll see Sequestration measures that bring it down to about $500.
There's Obama's plan, which basically cuts the defense budget's nails, leveling things off minus the costs of Afghanistan and Iraq, at about $550 or so billion. Status quo.
And finally, there is Gov. Romney's plan, which would dramatically increase the defense budget by over $200 billion a year to a total of $800 billion/yr through his first term, and then approaching $900 billion/yr by the year 2020.
Which budget would you endorse and why? And if you decide to pick the Ramp-Up choice, please talk about how the country could pay for such an escalation.
I'll post this and then figure out my pick in a few minutes and post about it.
Note: The two wars are separate from this chart through much of the last decade due to the fact that "emergency" spending bills by President Bush covered those conflicts.
I'm interested in hearing from you. If you were a politician in Washington who got to vote on the defense budget, which would you vote for and why? Where would you take it?
There's a Post Cold War scale down that would take things down to about $425 billion a year.
If the gov't can't get its shit together by New Year's Day, than we'll see Sequestration measures that bring it down to about $500.
There's Obama's plan, which basically cuts the defense budget's nails, leveling things off minus the costs of Afghanistan and Iraq, at about $550 or so billion. Status quo.
And finally, there is Gov. Romney's plan, which would dramatically increase the defense budget by over $200 billion a year to a total of $800 billion/yr through his first term, and then approaching $900 billion/yr by the year 2020.
Which budget would you endorse and why? And if you decide to pick the Ramp-Up choice, please talk about how the country could pay for such an escalation.
I'll post this and then figure out my pick in a few minutes and post about it.
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