Here is a little clip of an interview with Vermont's own senator Bernie Sanders:
So basically. Obama done lied to us. Maybe not directly but come on- let's look at some unknown facts about our military exploits currently:
-We are in the greatest military spending since WWII.
-240,000 contractors in Iraq working for the military and state department.
80% of these people are foreign nationals. There are more contractors now then military!
-Froze spending on things like education and other domestic programs which made up 17% of the budget.
Essentially this means lets spend money to go kill people but not educate and give healthcare citizens of our own country.
-55% of our national budget is awarded to military efforts.
-Tax payers now pay approximately 1 billion dollars a year for the military.
-"When it comes to our nation’s military affairs, ignorance is not bliss. What’s remarkable then, given the permanent state of war in which we find ourselves, is how many Americans seem content not to know.”
William Astore, retired lt. Colonel
-An F-35 jet originally expected to cost $50 million actually costs $113 million.
An F-35 Jet ------------------------->
-The airforce navy and army want to by 2,450 of these...$323 billion dollars.
-A soldier on the ground in Afghanistan costs $1 million a year
-An afghanistan governors make about $1,000 a year.
The thoughts of "what-if" after reading this part are endless. For example, in the next ten years we could spend the same on healthcare reform than we will this year on military alone. Not only domestically but in all the countries we have a military pressence-couldn't we use the same money towards more productive means of creating humane conditions of living?
Just to be fair however, this isn't something that has arisen simply with the election of Obama. Controversy over military spending has been around for a while. ..Exhibit A:
-I thought this was a great quote from the section: "Tom Engelhardt points out, “Here’s an American reality: the Pentagon is our true welfare state, the weapons makers are our real ‘welfare queens,’ and we never stop shoveling money their way.”
