Heritage In Focus: Myths About Defense Spending: Part 2

Heritage In Focus: Myths About Defense Spending: Part 2

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Heritage
• Foundation
• Focus
• Defense
• Spending
• National
• Budget
• GDP
• Carafano
• Eaglen

[SashaShokolova]

I'm very uneasy with the amount that the government is spending overall, Mike. That said, spending 1/4 to 1/5 of the budget on a duty that is actually constitutionally enumerated (one of the few things the government does these days that actually is) does not seem unreasonable. I believe we must police for government waste across the whole government, not just single out defense because it suits some political agenda. We could -eliminate- defense spending and still go broke, now.

[UsualMike]

@SashaShokolova Are you okay with spending 4% of GDP on defense? Do you ever wonder what we're getting in return for that money? Do we really need to spend that much to be safe? One thing the federal government does exceptionally poorly is manage risks. Defense and security are no exception. I'll "listen" for your response.

[UsualMike]

@CostAnalyst Thanks for the clarification. 4% of GDP makes more sense.

[CostAnalyst]

Entitlements are a problem and we need to fix that too, it still doesn't justify wasting money in defense. I'm not saying all defense is a waste, but there is way too much waste

[CostAnalyst]

@UsualMike Heritage wants 4 percent of GDP, not 4 percent of the federal budget.

[decimated550]

These young dorks think that we have a great military. Our bolt is shot, our troops are overpaid, the benefits excessive, retention is still low, and our combat operations have not paid off much in proportion to the effort/money spent.

Look at brazil...maybe we should try to emulate them...no real military, and they wanna be friends with everyone, including china.

[jimberkt]

Also, I wonder does the Heritage foundation think it is a good idea for America to pay for the defence of Germany, Japan, South Korea and all the other countries that are able to live in socialist utopias because they don't have to pay for defence?

[jimberkt]

These guys are terrible at propaganda. It seems as if they havent seen a propaganda film since WW2. Watch Fox news suckas and see how the masters do it.

Also if it seems like it's only 4% of GDP that's because most of the money has either been borrowed or printed rather than paid for by taxes.

[SashaShokolova]

Actually, Mike, they didn't say it was 4 percent of budget, but that it was 4 percent of GDP, which is correct. Learn to listen, listen to learn.

[UsualMike]

The 4 percent figure offered in the previous video is wrong. The federal budget is over 3 trillion. 4 percent of this is around $120 billion. Our current level of defense spending is around 4-5 times this level. Perhaps the "analysts" in the video can share the source of their numbers, so that we can fact check them.