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REPORT COPYRIGHT VIOLATION IN REPLY
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Message Subject
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Do you know why the US military is so heavily rightwing Republican?
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Poster Handle
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Anonymous Coward |
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Post Content
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As Gore Vidal has shown, "in actual fact, close to 90 percent of the disbursements of the federal government go for what is laughingly known as 'defense.'
"This is how: In 1986, the gross revenue of the government was $794 billion. Of that amount, $294 billion were Social Security contributions, which should be subtracted from the money available to the national security state. That leaves $500 billion. Subsequent budgets show different figures but similar proportions.
"Of the $500 billion, $286 billion went to defense; $12 billion for foreign arms to client states; $8 billion to $9 billion to energy, which means, largely, nuclear weapons; $27 billion for veterans' benefits, the sad and constant reminder of the ongoing empire's recklnesness; and, finally, $142 billion for interest on loans that were spent, over the past forty years, to keep the national security state at war, hot or cold.
"So, of 1986's $500 billion in revenue, $475 billion was spent on National Security business. Of that amount, we will never know how much was 'kicked back' through political action committees and so-called soft money to subsidize candidates and elections. Other federal spending, incidentally, came to $177 billion in 1986 (guarding presidential candidates, cleaning the White House), which was about the size of the deficit, since only $358 billion was collected in taxes."
90% of workers' taxes go to military spending!
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 16181617 Now you're citing stats from 1986? Really? Come on, now. Again (just to review), the military receives 19% of the federal budget and 58% of discretionary spending, which comes to 18% of the federal budget. Combined, the military receives 29% of the total federal budget, during a time of war. Am I okay with that? Absolutely. I read this in Vidal's book America years ago. It's an amazing passage that I just found on the net. I think he's more right than you are but I'll have to study the numbers. Gore Vidal's kissed more boys than I have.
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