To
listen to the Republican candidates' debate last week, one would think
that President Obama had slashed the U.S. military budget and left our
country defenseless. Nothing could be farther off the mark. There are
real weaknesses in Obama's foreign policy, but a lack of funding for
weapons and war is not one of them. President Obama has in fact been
responsible for the largest U.S. military budget since the Second World
War, as is well documented in the U.S. Department of Defense's annual "Green Book."
listen to the Republican candidates' debate last week, one would think
that President Obama had slashed the U.S. military budget and left our
country defenseless. Nothing could be farther off the mark. There are
real weaknesses in Obama's foreign policy, but a lack of funding for
weapons and war is not one of them. President Obama has in fact been
responsible for the largest U.S. military budget since the Second World
War, as is well documented in the U.S. Department of Defense's annual "Green Book."
The
table below compares average annual Pentagon budgets under every
president since Truman, using "constant dollar" figures from the FY2016
Green Book. I'll use these same inflation-adjusted figures throughout
this article, to make sure I'm always comparing "apples to apples".
These figures do not include additional military-related spending by
the VA, CIA, Homeland Security, Energy, Justice or State Departments,
nor interest payments on past military spending, which combine to raise
the true cost of U.S. militarism to about $1.3 trillion per year, or one thirteenth of the U.S. economy.
table below compares average annual Pentagon budgets under every
president since Truman, using "constant dollar" figures from the FY2016
Green Book. I'll use these same inflation-adjusted figures throughout
this article, to make sure I'm always comparing "apples to apples".
These figures do not include additional military-related spending by
the VA, CIA, Homeland Security, Energy, Justice or State Departments,
nor interest payments on past military spending, which combine to raise
the true cost of U.S. militarism to about $1.3 trillion per year, or one thirteenth of the U.S. economy.
