January 24, 2004

EMPIRE ON THE CHEAP:

Bush to Ask for $401.7 Billion Defense Budget (Associated Press, January 23, 2004)

President Bush will ask Congress to approve $401.7 billion in defense spending for the budget year that begins in October, a 7 percent increase over this year, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The money does not include the cost of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Currently, the Pentagon is spending about $1 billion a week in Iraq and about $1 billion a month in Afghanistan.

If, as expected, operations are still under way in those countries when the 2005 budget year begins Oct. 1, the administration presumably will have to ask Congress to appropriate extra billions of dollars.


Folks who anticipate the imminent collapse of the American Empoire under this burden might do well to consider this chart:

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 24, 2004 1:00 PM
Comments

Fascinating. And if it were shown as a percentage of GDP, the line would be going down down down...

Could you let us know where you got the chart? I'd like to post it also, and give proper credit.

Posted by: John Weidner at January 24, 2004 2:17 PM

http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb95.htm

Posted by: oj at January 24, 2004 2:27 PM

Another example of what happens when you are rich-- you can, out of discretionary spending, afford a military that can bring some peace and freedom to the world, and still have plenty left over for dog food, cosmetics and the lastest dreck from Hollywood.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 24, 2004 9:12 PM

And yet a graph of military power would be climbing steadily; it may cost constant dollars adjusting for inflation (which is to say, price rises of things most people buy), but defense spending is sensibly shifting to things whose costs rise slower than that or even are subject to deflation - eg, the guidance computer for a guided bomb - because they are now better bargains.

Further, there is a cumulative effect from things such as R&D and capital ships with 50-year lifespans.

Posted by: mike earl at January 24, 2004 11:29 PM

Now there is a chart that would drive the Europeans crazy. American hyper-power, as we all know, is supposed to be built on the backs of the poor. I look forward to some progressive linking this with the Friedman post above and arguing that if all this money was used instead to provide jobs for everyone in Muslim countries...

Posted by: Peter B at January 25, 2004 10:12 AM
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