Thursday, April 26, 2012

Enough is Enough

In 2011, the United States spent $711 billion on defense. That amount was 41% of the total defense spending in the entire world. The next 14 countries COMBINED only spent $698.7 billion. The second highest country to the United States, China, spent $143 billion for defense, 20% of America’s defense expenditures. United States defense spending accounted for 4.7% of GDP where the total world defense expenditures accounted for 2.6% of GDP. Only Saudi Arabia, which spent the total of $48.2 billion spent a higher percentage of that country’s GDP as 10.4%. At what point have we spent enough? How much of the country’s revenues need be devoted to defense? When does the nation’s security cease to be threatened by other countries and the safety and security of citizens financially threatened by excessive defense spending and inadequate spending on roads, bridges, airports, and other infrastructure that is falling down due to age and lack of maintenance. The citizens who died when the bridge fell into the Mississippi were no less dead because they were not killed by some enemy. The needs to defend from threats within the borders are just as important as the need to defend from threats outside of the borders. More Americans will die in 2012 from infrastructure defects than from al Qaeda. The Ryan/Romney budget plans to increase defense spending but claims to cut 20% from all other expenditures. THAT IS INSANITY! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

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