America's Wars and the US Debt Crisis
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Bill Totten
May 28, 2023, 5:02:49 PM5/28/23
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America's Wars and the US Debt Crisis
To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the
Military-Industrial Complex, the most powerful lobby in Washington.
by Jeffrey D Sachs
https://www.jeffsachs.org (May 20 2022)
In the year 2000, the US government debt was $3.5 trillion, equal to
35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24
trillion, equal to 95% of GDP. The US debt is soaring, hence America's
current debt crisis. Yet both Republicans and Democrats are missing
the solution: stopping America's wars of choice and slashing military
outlays.
Suppose the government's debt had remained at a modest 35% of GDP, as
in 2000. Today's debt would be $9 billion, as opposed to $24 trillion.
Why did the US government incur the excess $15 trillion in debt?
The single biggest answer is the US government's addiction to war and
military spending. According to the Watson Institute at Brown
University, the cost of US wars from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year
2022 amounted to a whopping $8 trillion {1}, more than half of the
extra $15 trillion in debt. The other $7 trillion arose roughly
equally from budget deficits caused by the 2008 financial crisis and
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Facing down the military-industrial lobby is the vital first step to
putting America's fiscal house in order
To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the
Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), the most powerful lobby in
Washington. As President Dwight D Eisenhower famously warned {2} on
January 17 1961, "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." Since 2000, the MIC
led the US into disastrous wars of choice in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria,
Libya, and now Ukraine.
The Military-Industrial Complex long ago adopted a winning political
strategy by ensuring that the military budget reaches into every
Congressional district. The Congressional Research Service recently
reminded {3} Congress that, "Defense spending touches every Member of
Congress's district through pay and benefits for military service
members and retirees, economic and environmental impact of
installations, and procurement of weapons systems and parts from local
industry, among other activities". Only a brave member of Congress
would vote against the military-industry lobby, yet bravery is
certainly no hallmark of Congress.
America's annual military spending is now around $900 billion, roughly
40% of the world's total {4}, and greater than the next 10 countries
combined. US military spending in 2022 was triple that of China.
According to Congressional Budget Office, the military outlays for
2024~2033 {5} will be a staggering $10.3 trillion on the current
baseline. A quarter or more of that could be avoided by ending
America's wars of choice, closing down many of America's 800 or so
military bases around the world, and negotiating new arms control
agreements with China and Russia.
Yet instead of peace through diplomacy and fiscal responsibility, the
MIC regularly scares the American people with a comic-book-style
depiction of villains whom the US must stop at all costs. The
post-2000 list has included Afghanistan's Taliban, Iraq's Saddam
Hussein, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Libya's Moammar Qaddafi, Russia's
Vladimir Putin, and recently, China's Xi Jinping. War, we are
repeatedly told, is necessary for America's survival.
A peace-oriented foreign policy would be opposed strenuously by the
military-industrial lobby but not by the public. Significant public
pluralities already want less {6}, not more, US involvement in other
countries' affairs, and less, not more, US troop deployments overseas.
Regarding Ukraine, Americans overwhelmingly {7} want a "minor role"
(52%) rather than a "major role" (26%) in the conflict between Russia
and Ukraine. This is why neither Biden nor any recent president has
dared to ask Congress for any tax increase to pay for America's wars.
The public's response would be a resounding "No!"
While America's wars of choice have been awful for America, they have
been far greater disasters for countries that America purports to be
saving. As Henry Kissinger famously quipped, "To be an enemy of the
United States can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal".
Afghanistan was America's cause from 2001 to 2021 until the US left it
broken, bankrupt, and hungry. Ukraine is now in America's embrace,
with the same likely results: ongoing war, death, and destruction.
The military budget could be cut prudently and deeply if the US
replaced its wars of choice and arms races with real diplomacy and
arms agreements. If presidents and members of Congress had only heeded
the warnings of top American diplomats such as William Burns {8}, the
US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and now CIA Director, the US would
have protected Ukraine's security through diplomacy, agreeing with
Russia that the US would not expand Nato into Ukraine if Russia also
kept its military out of Ukraine. Yet relentless Nato expansion is a
favorite cause of the MIC; new Nato members are major customers of US
armaments.
The US has also unilaterally abandoned key arms control agreements. In
2002, the US unilaterally walked out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty. And rather than promote nuclear disarmament - as the US and
other nuclear powers are required to do under Article VI of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - the Military-Industrial Complex
(MIC) has sold Congress on plans to spend more than $600 billion {9}
by 2030 to "modernize" the US nuclear arsenal.
Now the MIC is talking up the prospect of war with China over Taiwan.
The drumbeats of war with China are stoking the military budget, yet
war with China is easily avoidable if the US adheres to the One-China
policy that properly underpins US-China relations. Such a war should
be unthinkable. More than bankrupting the US, it could end the world.
Military spending is not the only budget challenge. Aging and rising
healthcare costs add to the fiscal woes. According to the
Congressional Budget Office, debt will reach 185 percent of GDP by
2052 {10} if current policies remain unchanged. Healthcare costs
should be capped while taxes on the rich should be raised. Yet facing
down the military-industrial lobby is the vital first step to putting
America's fiscal house in order, needed to save the US, and possibly
the world, from America's perverse lobby-driven politics.
Links:
{1} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=db890fa981&e=a97df659c1
{2} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=e59533bd65&e=a97df659c1
{3} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=d743774be1&e=a97df659c1
{4} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=98bae3fae1&e=a97df659c1
{5} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=4ae67d90da&e=a97df659c1
{6} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=18e255d7c3&e=a97df659c1
{7} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=d575b0dc69&e=a97df659c1
{8} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=2d2ef8cb91&e=a97df659c1
{9} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=ec880c29ba&e=a97df659c1
{10} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=74af87a231&e=a97df659c1
https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/2x6jggs466xgktphxb7shm4ckzn47r
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of
https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/05/29/americas-wars-and-the-us-debt-crisis/
To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the
Military-Industrial Complex, the most powerful lobby in Washington.
by Jeffrey D Sachs
https://www.jeffsachs.org (May 20 2022)
In the year 2000, the US government debt was $3.5 trillion, equal to
35% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). By 2022, the debt was $24
trillion, equal to 95% of GDP. The US debt is soaring, hence America's
current debt crisis. Yet both Republicans and Democrats are missing
the solution: stopping America's wars of choice and slashing military
outlays.
Suppose the government's debt had remained at a modest 35% of GDP, as
in 2000. Today's debt would be $9 billion, as opposed to $24 trillion.
Why did the US government incur the excess $15 trillion in debt?
The single biggest answer is the US government's addiction to war and
military spending. According to the Watson Institute at Brown
University, the cost of US wars from fiscal year 2001 to fiscal year
2022 amounted to a whopping $8 trillion {1}, more than half of the
extra $15 trillion in debt. The other $7 trillion arose roughly
equally from budget deficits caused by the 2008 financial crisis and
the COVID-19 pandemic.
Facing down the military-industrial lobby is the vital first step to
putting America's fiscal house in order
To surmount the debt crisis, America needs to stop feeding the
Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), the most powerful lobby in
Washington. As President Dwight D Eisenhower famously warned {2} on
January 17 1961, "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." Since 2000, the MIC
led the US into disastrous wars of choice in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria,
Libya, and now Ukraine.
The Military-Industrial Complex long ago adopted a winning political
strategy by ensuring that the military budget reaches into every
Congressional district. The Congressional Research Service recently
reminded {3} Congress that, "Defense spending touches every Member of
Congress's district through pay and benefits for military service
members and retirees, economic and environmental impact of
installations, and procurement of weapons systems and parts from local
industry, among other activities". Only a brave member of Congress
would vote against the military-industry lobby, yet bravery is
certainly no hallmark of Congress.
America's annual military spending is now around $900 billion, roughly
40% of the world's total {4}, and greater than the next 10 countries
combined. US military spending in 2022 was triple that of China.
According to Congressional Budget Office, the military outlays for
2024~2033 {5} will be a staggering $10.3 trillion on the current
baseline. A quarter or more of that could be avoided by ending
America's wars of choice, closing down many of America's 800 or so
military bases around the world, and negotiating new arms control
agreements with China and Russia.
Yet instead of peace through diplomacy and fiscal responsibility, the
MIC regularly scares the American people with a comic-book-style
depiction of villains whom the US must stop at all costs. The
post-2000 list has included Afghanistan's Taliban, Iraq's Saddam
Hussein, Syria's Bashar al-Assad, Libya's Moammar Qaddafi, Russia's
Vladimir Putin, and recently, China's Xi Jinping. War, we are
repeatedly told, is necessary for America's survival.
A peace-oriented foreign policy would be opposed strenuously by the
military-industrial lobby but not by the public. Significant public
pluralities already want less {6}, not more, US involvement in other
countries' affairs, and less, not more, US troop deployments overseas.
Regarding Ukraine, Americans overwhelmingly {7} want a "minor role"
(52%) rather than a "major role" (26%) in the conflict between Russia
and Ukraine. This is why neither Biden nor any recent president has
dared to ask Congress for any tax increase to pay for America's wars.
The public's response would be a resounding "No!"
While America's wars of choice have been awful for America, they have
been far greater disasters for countries that America purports to be
saving. As Henry Kissinger famously quipped, "To be an enemy of the
United States can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal".
Afghanistan was America's cause from 2001 to 2021 until the US left it
broken, bankrupt, and hungry. Ukraine is now in America's embrace,
with the same likely results: ongoing war, death, and destruction.
The military budget could be cut prudently and deeply if the US
replaced its wars of choice and arms races with real diplomacy and
arms agreements. If presidents and members of Congress had only heeded
the warnings of top American diplomats such as William Burns {8}, the
US Ambassador to Russia in 2008, and now CIA Director, the US would
have protected Ukraine's security through diplomacy, agreeing with
Russia that the US would not expand Nato into Ukraine if Russia also
kept its military out of Ukraine. Yet relentless Nato expansion is a
favorite cause of the MIC; new Nato members are major customers of US
armaments.
The US has also unilaterally abandoned key arms control agreements. In
2002, the US unilaterally walked out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile
Treaty. And rather than promote nuclear disarmament - as the US and
other nuclear powers are required to do under Article VI of the
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty - the Military-Industrial Complex
(MIC) has sold Congress on plans to spend more than $600 billion {9}
by 2030 to "modernize" the US nuclear arsenal.
Now the MIC is talking up the prospect of war with China over Taiwan.
The drumbeats of war with China are stoking the military budget, yet
war with China is easily avoidable if the US adheres to the One-China
policy that properly underpins US-China relations. Such a war should
be unthinkable. More than bankrupting the US, it could end the world.
Military spending is not the only budget challenge. Aging and rising
healthcare costs add to the fiscal woes. According to the
Congressional Budget Office, debt will reach 185 percent of GDP by
2052 {10} if current policies remain unchanged. Healthcare costs
should be capped while taxes on the rich should be raised. Yet facing
down the military-industrial lobby is the vital first step to putting
America's fiscal house in order, needed to save the US, and possibly
the world, from America's perverse lobby-driven politics.
Links:
{1} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=db890fa981&e=a97df659c1
{2} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=e59533bd65&e=a97df659c1
{3} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=d743774be1&e=a97df659c1
{4} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=98bae3fae1&e=a97df659c1
{5} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=4ae67d90da&e=a97df659c1
{6} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=18e255d7c3&e=a97df659c1
{7} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=d575b0dc69&e=a97df659c1
{8} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=2d2ef8cb91&e=a97df659c1
{9} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=ec880c29ba&e=a97df659c1
{10} https://twitter.us19.list-manage.com/track/click?u=50ec04f7fdd8f247aecfa0ddf&id=74af87a231&e=a97df659c1
https://www.jeffsachs.org/newspaper-articles/2x6jggs466xgktphxb7shm4ckzn47r
TO POST A COMMENT, OR TO READ COMMENTS POSTED BY OTHERS, please click
the appropriate link at the top or bottom of
https://billtotten.wpcomstaging.com/2023/05/29/americas-wars-and-the-us-debt-crisis/
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