[ck2]

Military and "defense" costs far more than "just" $1 trillion every year.

There are many many hidden costs and the massive expenses for the thousands of severely wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan that survived instead of dying because of modern medical technology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_S... This does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance, cleanup, and production, which is in the Department of Energy budget, Veterans Affairs, the Treasury Department's payments in pensions to military retirees and widows and their families, interest on debt incurred in past wars, or State Department financing of foreign arms sales and militarily-related development assistance. Neither does it include defense spending that is not military in nature, such as the Department of Homeland Security, counter-terrorism spending by the FBI, and intelligence-gathering spending by NASA.

Military expense is a MONSTER that just grows and grows and grows.

ps. The costs for the Iraq and Afghanistan war are technically done outside the budget and through borrowed money. The INTEREST on them alone is over $500 Billion

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2007-10-23-wacosts_N.h...

[jemfinch]

"Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes." (Eisenhower's farewell address, 1961)

[mixmax]

The documentary "Why we fight" opens with Eisenhovers farewell speech and addresses this very problem. It'a available on Google video here: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9219858826421983682# and is worth watching.

[yummyfajitas]

I think this site includes many of the hidden costs. Clicking the "Defense" dropdown, you can see many of the categories of spending you mentioned (e.g. 90B on veterans, 18B on "Atomic energy defense activities").

http://usgovernmentspending.com/year2009_US.html

It's a nice site for budget issues, among other things it doesn't go the lazy route and look at federal spending only.

(Interesting fact the site reveals: including state/local budgets, education is the #2 expense in the US. The military is #4.)

[bjelkeman-again]

Imagine what could be done with that money if you spent it on schools, investment on renewable energy, upgrading the sagging infrastructure etc.

[jleyank]

There's the rub. The money's NOT THERE... The US is spending what it doesn't have, and has to stop doing that...

[seabee]

It's not about money being there or not, government budgets don't work like that. It's about saddling the next generation with more and more debt. It's trading the future for short term gains.