The Real “Ever-Expanding” Threat to Fiscal Sanity

Posted February 19th, 2009 at 9.18am in Entitlements, Protect America.

Congressman Barney Frank

Congressman Barney Frank met with reporters recently to further voice support for the $700 Billion TARP allocation while concurrently hinting at the need for defense cuts. In his statement, the Congressman said, “The biggest ongoing threat, I believe, to fiscal sanity in this country is an open-ended ever-expanding military budget.” These remarks are not a huge surprise considering recent rhetoric from our government and military leaders.

Within the last month, Secretary of Defense Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen, and Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Carl Levin have all signaled that cuts are likely to occur. President Obama has suggested that these cuts may be as high as 10 percent.

However, Congressman Frank may be in need of a history lesson if he truly believes that our military budget is simply “open-ended” and “ever-expanding.” Not only is America’s military spending under complete control, it has dropped significantly as a percentage of GDP in the last 60 years. Experts at The Heritage Foundation fear that military spending has fallen too much in recent years, and the strain now placed on our military become dangerous.

If Congressman Frank wants to take a look at true “open-ended ever-expanding” he should focus more on entitlement spending which is completely out of control. Not only does entitlement spending consume significantly more of the federal budget than defense spending, it is increasing at an exponential rate, while defense spending has dropped.

In this case, the numbers truly speak for themselves. Since 1945 defense spending as a percentage of GDP has dropped from 34.5 percent to its current number which is just under 4 percent. That doesn’t seem so out of control to me. Entitlement spending on the other hand currently consumes about 8.4 percent of our GDP, and at its current rate will rise to a staggering 18.6 percent in the coming decades.

Author: Michelle Marinaro
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6 Comments

February 19, 2009 Ozzy6900, CT writes:

One of the biggest problems with the “sanity of our economy” is Congressman Barney Frank! Why, when you are engaged in two military actions abroad, and trying to defend the Nation against terrorism, would you even consider cutting Defense spending? The man really needs a lobotomy!

February 19, 2009 J.C. Hughes, Texas writes:

I suppose Frank’s ultimate goal is the total dismantling of not only a once functional market but also of the fed’s primary responsibilty, national defense. Who the heck voted for this nut case anyway? Let me guess…

February 19, 2009 ra,ohio writes:

This is deplorable, Frank and Dodd should be removed from their positions in congress, stripped of their pensions, and watched as they TRY TO LEAD A NORMAL LIFE.

These elites are running the COUNTRY !!

STAND UP AND TAKE THE COUNTRY BACK.

Pelosi should be impeached. She is the worst, biased, liberal, speaker we have had in years.

She just spent 30+ million to protect a mouse, in a swamp, around San Fran.

OK the state of California is essentially bankrupt, but is sitting on BILLIONS of $ of revenue to the state if the bunny huggers, and fish kissers would get out of the way and let them tap into the oil, and nat gas that is right under their feet.

as John Denver said many times….FAR OUT

February 20, 2009 Those Who Voted For The Stimulus Package Put Our Troops At Risk « The Mike Slater Show writes:

[...] spending is set to hit 18% of our GDP. Defense is currently at 3.8% and defense is the problem? He’s living in a dream [...]

February 25, 2009 Various Economic Notes « 36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! writes:

[...] Democrats remain fiscal hawks about defense spending. It’s just a shame that defense spending (even including operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) is about 15% of the federal budget and entitlement spending already takes up twice as much and is going to expand. I’ve got a compromise for Barney Frank, who is apparently so interested in “fiscal sanity:” instead of cutting defense, let’s kill the omnibus spending bill being debated in Congress. That bill, at $410 billion, would be much more than the cuts that anybody could make at Defense without disbanding the military. If that’s not enough, there’s about $1 trillion that just passed that we could get cut, not to mention dismantling the plans for TARP 2: Electric Boogaloo. And that’s before getting drastic and actually cutting existing programs. [...]

February 27, 2009 Di, NY writes:

Good ideas, I had suspected a master plan in the works since I started becoming interested in politics in November 2008. The recent level of organization and laws they are attempting to pass in the name of ‘change’ only confirms what I believe I have come to witness. We are in the final moves of a masterfully played game of political chess. We have been manipulated into this, We are witnessing the start of End Game. The stakes are high, in the end you have only three options, you can ignore it and play World of Warcraft, you can cheer it on and wave a flag, or you can hatch a plan to stop them. But we don’t have much time, so whatever you do, it must be done quickly.

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