Military Spending in the US Essay

The majority of college students in the US today, do not know what it is want to live in a nation that is not at war, and this is no different for myself. One of my hold memories in elementary school was the attack on the earth trade center on 9/11. I am sure that I share that memory with many others. Throughout our lives, we have cognise our country to be one that is constantly fighting with another. As I grow older, I shed light on how surrounded we are by issues concerning our war machine presence in other countries. I also lead off to feel the consequences of our action at laws as a country.Much of our politicians time and effort is put into figuring out how to work our troops home or how to support our troops while still keeping taxes down. In the hold back it is the American public who are funding our war with our taxes as rise as paying the consequences with things such as raised oil values. For my research paper I am going to discuss American host economics its effects on the American public, and our current presidential candidates stances on forces outlay. The military work out is a portion of the fall in States federal budget.It is used to pay the salaries, training, and health tending of military personnel. It is also used to maintain arms, equipment, facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new weapons. According to the Department of Defense budget for the 2010 fiscal year, the presidents base budget for spending on overseas operations was $663. 4 one thousand thousand. The 2009 U. S. military budget accounts for approximately 40% of the total global arms spending. The USs 2012 budget is 6 to 7 times larger than the $106 billion of the military budget of China.It is greater than the next twenty dollar bill largest military spenders combined. Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts claims if we do not make reductions approximating 25 percent of the military budget go bading fairly soon, it will be impossible to conti nue to fund an adequate take of domestic activity. Some argue that now is not the time to subvert military spending. republican historian Robert Kagan argues, A reduction in disproof spending this year would unnerve American associate and would be taken by the world as evidence that an American retreat has begun. The change magnitude military spending since 9/11 has stimulated the US economy to a degree. However the jobs and income that it has created is offset by the massive increase in debt created. According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, the defense budget has increased from $432 billion in 2001 to $720 billion in 2011, an increase of around 67 percent. Increased military spending has been funded almost entirely by borrowing. There are many reasons why the debt has grown so some(prenominal) since 2001.These reasons include tax cuts, increases in other government spending, and the largest postwar recession the US has experienced. However, military ope rations in Iraq and Afghanistan have raised annual deficits by approximately 1 percent of GDP, a edit that is expected to continue through 2020. Since we decided to borrow money instead of increasing taxes or bare other spending, if war spending continues as forecasted, the country can expect to have paid about $1 trillion in interest by 2020.If the investments in the military over the last ten had been made in U.S. breeding, it would represent an 18. 5 percent boost in terms of capital improvements nationwide. This would finance the investments in public school facilities required to return the countrys schools to good condition. Traditionally the republican Party has been the more inclined towards increased national security and previous presidential candidate deal Romney described Obamas plan as a hollowing out of the military. 2012 running mates Ryan and Romney make the target that it is Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security that are the majority of the deficit.Though th ey are right, the American public still wants to cut spending even more than the $487 billion already cut by the Obama administration. Romney and Ryan had a plan to go in the exact opposite direction if they had won the election. They planned to boost defense spending by $100 billion, or nearly 20% in 2013. The Republican Party, otherwise known as the lordly old party or GOP, traditionally follows Ronald Reagans stance on national defense. That stance is equal by the motto of peace through strength.Today, that means protecting Americas homeland by confronting terrorism and maintaining a defense against arising threats of nuclear power. The Republican Party is dependabley committed to Americas Armed Forces to make sure that they are prepared for any challenges they may need to face. While the United States is involved in various international organizations, which serve the cause of peace and posterity, the Republican Party argues that these organizations essential never substitut e for principled American leadership to protect our vital national interests.All of the nurture I gathered about the GOPs stance on national defense was pulled instantly from their official website, www. GOP. com. Current president Barack Obama has sought to end the war in Iraq and accelerate the transition in Afghanistan in part to lower defense costs. He has proposed a number of defense cuts over the next decade. kinda than following the words of a president who was in office over 20 years agone and during the cold war, the Democratic Party feels that as our threats have evolved over the years, so too should our ability to suffice to them.President Obama has made significant steps to restore Americas image around the world by rebuilding strategic alliances with countries that share our values and face common threats. As far as the situation overseas, the President plans to bring home 10,000 troops by the end of this year, 33,000 by next summer, and dispatch the transition by 2014. Just as I did for the Republican Party, I got all of this information directly from the official website, www. democrats. org.What originally inspired my interest in this subject is when I began to notice issues such as how much our pedagogyal system is suffering across the nation. Also, with a little bit of research, I salubrious-read that the NASA budget has been cut about a billion dollars in the last three years. Yet, at the corresponding time, the military budget is increase by about the same gist as the entire NASA budget. peradventure its just my nature, but I feel that it is a huge waste of time and assets to be spending most of our money fighting other countries, when we could be exploring and making discoveries for the betterment of mankind.As I mentioned earlier, the US has funded all of our wars solely on borrowing, and we have racked up quite a large amount of interest in doing so. On the other hand, a paper written by Douglas A. Camstock, Director of moder n Partnerships Office, NASA Headquarters, and Daniel P. Lockney of Innovative Partnerships Office, NASA Headquarters, the return rate for NASA research can be as high as 32 times the initial investment. At the very lowest, they estimate that for every dollar invested in NASA, there is a return of at least seven dollars as a result of technological advances.Not tho is the lack of support for research a shame for the curious minded, but it is bad fiscal think as well. Single bombs can cost the military about one million dollars each. Here in the state of California, an average teachers salary is about $40,000 a year this is one of the states with the highest averages. For the price of one bomb or missile, twenty-five teachers can be paid to work for a full year. It doesnt take a professional economic expert to tell you that investing in education is well worth it.Educated adults grow up to become working, contributing members of society. Politicians seem to always be expression for ways to create jobs. What better way than for an educated individual to go out and become an entrepreneur, start a business, and hire people to work for them? A study from the University of Massachusetts in 2011 says that for every billion spent in education, about 26,700 jobs are created. Among the different departments that were researched were health care, clean energy, tax cuts, and of course education and defense.Of those five, the military had the least amount of jobs created per billion spent at 11,200 jobs. Once again, it doesnt take an economist to recognize a poor investment. Over the course of my research paper, I learned about the expand of our defense budget and military spending trends in the US as well as our boilersuit deficit. I also found the effects that war has had on the American Public as well as on our economy. During the election I paid close attention to our current presidential candidates and their plans for our defense budget.Only the future will tell if these trends continue or whether our president will take action against our deficit and the fate of national security. I was also able to look into what sparked my interest on the event in the first place. I got to compare our spending on the military with other departments like education and NASA research. With the Presidents plan to begin our transition out of the Middle East in these future years, we will see if we begin a shift to a more progressive, intellectually motivated America. As a member of our educational system as well as a proud American, I sure hope we do.