Washington Post | Opinion | Defense spending is America’s cancerous bipartisan consensus.
Please read this article. The U.S. alone spends 643 billion (as much as the next ten biggest spenders). In fact, the ENTIRE WORLD spends a total of 1.67 trillion. That means that the U.S., by itself accounts for 38.5% of the total global defense spending.
Russia lost the cold war in 1989 because the U.S. forced it to spend so much on their defense that there was no money left for roads, buildings, hospitals, schools, feeding the poor... sound familiar?
What WOULD be a reasonable number to target for U.S. defense spending? China spends 168 billion, Russia 63 billion, making 231 billion together. Would that be appropriate? NATO Europe spends 264 billion. Maybe it would be appropriate to match that.
So can we agree that bringing U.S. defense spending back to 300 billion dollar a year would be an appropriate goal? And that from the 343 billion dollar a year we are saving, we use 150 billion every year to pay down the national debt, and use the remaining 193 billion a year to invest in infrastructure, clean energy, education, arts, health care, support for the poor—you know, all those things for which there is never any money?
Source of the dollar amounts: iss.org | On the up: Western defense spending in 2018