Sunday, January 4, 2015
On the Myth of Defense Austerity
Yes, Pentagon spending has gone down a little, but when you also figure in the Department of Homeland Security, spending in the Department of Energy relative to nuclear weapons, weapons aid to other countries, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the billions and billions of dollars that the Pentagon hides in the Treasury, etc., etc., we're still spending close to a trillion dollars a year and more than Russia, China, Iran, Syria, and North Korea combined X2! I'm sorry, but if this is what the neocons like Charles Krauthammer, Dick Cheney, Bret Stephens, and Richard Perle consider to be "gutting the Defense Department", I would really hate to see their version of militarism.
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5 comments:
Aren't there other myths of austerity we have discussed? Like Greece, where extravagant and wasteful government spending actually increased during the "austerity" period? Or was that another place?
I think that Greece and Italy did decrease spending, but just a couple of percentage points (per Eurostat). England and France only cut the rate of increase, kind of like us.......Estonia, on the other hand, did some real austerity and rebounded nicely (Krugman wrong - yet again).
Krugman is ever the fan of the authoritarian, strictly controlled approach. The divine right of rule.
The sad thing is that he used to be a respected economist prior to politics corrupting him.
Yeah, the whole "Rah! Rah!" fanboy silliness based on a (D) after someone's name. As intellectually deep as being a fan of a sports team.
Not that there is anything wrong with that... when it really is sports teams that are involved.
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