Issue Position: US Defense and "Offense" Spending

Issue Position

US Defense spending represents over half of the world's spending on defense. In 2010 we spent three times what the next 6 countries spent (China 119 Billion, UK 60B, France 58B, Russia 59B, Japan 54B, and Germany 45B). We spent $1.2 trillion, while their spending totaled 395 billion. Twenty-one percent of the US budget goes to defense, and defense accounts for 53% of discretionary spending. Defense spending has risen 155% since 1998. This tops Medicare, which has risen 147%, and Social Security, which has risen 86%.

The $1.2 trillion spent in 2010 comes from the Dept. of Defense Financial report. A large part of that was due to our preemptive "war of offense" in Iraq. $1.2 trillion is 200 million taxpayers each paying $6,000 annually to fund defense. If you were sent this as a bill each year, could you pay it? We borrowed a trillion to fund a war in Iraq for no clear reason. Over 24% of returning Iraq vets are unemployed, thousands were killed and tens of thousands are permanently maimed. How was this war of offense worth the cost?

We maintain over 1,000 foreign bases with over 70 bases in Germany, over 30 in Great Britain, over 24 in South Korea, 25 in Japan, and 23 in Italy. This is empire overreach. Many civilizations and empires have come and gone in an effort to prove that they are indestructible only to decay and fall within. We can learn from history or we can repeat it.

Republican president Dwight Eisenhower warned about the Military Industrial Complex:

"The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence- economic, political, even spiritual- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society."
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
"We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together".
What can an alert and knowledgeable citizenry do?

Do not allow our leaders to lie and exaggerate potential adversary's strength.
Do not allow the news media to become a mouthpiece for the "drummers of war". Demand that they seek the inconvenient facts, wherever they might lead, unlike the pre-Iraq invasion period.
Do not allow a climate of fear to define a partisan definition of patriotism in order to silence dissent.
Do not tolerate Presidents who violate our Constitution and start wars without Congressional deliberation and a Declaration of War (article 1, section 8, clause 11).
Do not let Congress write a blank check, outside the normal Appropriations Committee hearing process, for the funding of undeclared or declared wars.
Do not allow the Executive Branch or any government official to engage in unconstitutional and unlawful acts such as wiretapping, surveillance without judicial approval, arrest without charges, torture, denial of habeas corpus etc. No one in government or the military should be above our laws and escape accountability.
The U.S. spends as much on defense as the rest of the world combined, and we can no longer afford to do that. We must start by closing some of the more than 1000 foreign bases. We need outside auditing of defense contracts with large fines and possible jail sentences for those who overcharge and defraud the government. We need to end the doctrine of preemptive war (the Iraq war), it is a violation of the Geneva Convention, it creates more ill feeling and resultant terrorist recruiting, it is financially unsustainable, and it does not serve our long term interests in any way.

We can save billions by restructuring our defense systems to meet the needs of today's threats. Each billion going to Defense could create 3,300 jobs here in the US. If over the next decade we cut our Defense budget in half we could create over 2 million new jobs in the US focused on energy independence and infrastructure repairs and improvements. Nation building here at home will make us a stronger, more united, and better defended country as a result.

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