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The Militarization of America At What Cost?

The Militarization of America At What Cost?. Prepared by Peace Action Montgomery www.PeaceActionMC.org. Topics. The Federal Budget and Military Spending Where Does the Money Go? Arming the World What Does American Militarism Cost You? What You Can Do. The Federal Budget Military Spending.

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The Militarization of America At What Cost?

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  1. The Militarization of AmericaAt What Cost? Prepared by Peace Action Montgomery www.PeaceActionMC.org

  2. Topics • The Federal Budget and Military Spending • Where Does the Money Go? • Arming the World • What Does American Militarism Cost You? • What You Can Do

  3. The Federal BudgetMilitary Spending

  4. Total Federal Budget, FY 2010 Both Discretionary & Mandatory • Mandatory: Required by law Examples: • Interest on Debt (9.5%) • Social Security (21%) • Medicare • Unemployment • Discretionary: Negotiated each year Examples: • Military • Education • Research Source: National Priorities Project

  5. Discretionary Budget AuthorityFY 2010 • “All other” includes: • Environment • Science • Transportation • International affairs • Everything else except entitlements and debt. Source: National Priorities Project

  6. Obama Budget Proposal FY 2011 Source: National Priorities Project, FY 2011

  7. Growth in Military SpendingExcluding Wars Source: Project on Defense Alternatives

  8. Discretionary SpendingBy Category, 2009 Billions of Dollars Source: Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation, Briefing Book

  9. 2010Budget: Military Recruitment vs. Peace Corps Dollars Sources: American Forces Press Service; Peace Corps Web Site

  10. U.S. Military Spending vs. Other Countries, In Rank Order, FY 2009 Source: Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation

  11. U.S. Job Creation with $1 Billion Spending Number of Jobs Created Education Health Care Clean Energy Consumption Military Source: U of MA, Political Economy Research Institute

  12. Montgomery County Citizens’ Share of Military Expenditures, FY2010 Budget • About $3 billion or • $2,000 per person Source: National Priorities Project

  13. With $3 Billion, Montgomery County Could Instead Have Paid For: • All expenses at a public university for four years for every 18-year-old in the County, and • Renewable electricity for three years for all the homes in the county, and • Over 5,000 new affordable housing units. Source: Computed from National Priorities Project and census

  14. State of Maryland MD portion FY 2010 military budget: $13.7 bn State FY 2010 budget: $13.9 bn Estimated shortfall: 2.6 bn Proposed state spending cuts: Public Health Disabled Education Source: National Priorities Project, Out of Balance

  15. How Much Could We Cut the Military Budget? Andrew Bacevich: We should reduce the US military budget to a level that does not exceed the combined military spending of all ten of the next highest-spending countries in the world. Source: National Priorities Project—Security Spending Primer

  16. Where Does the Money Go? • War costs • Foreign military bases • War profiteers

  17. Military Budget, 2011 Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

  18. Total War CostsIraq and Afghanistan Through 2010 Total direct cost of both wars by 2010: over $1 trillion Iraq: $747 billion Af/Pak: $332 billion (including epected June supplemental of $33 billion) Total: $1.079 trillion Source: National Priorities Project

  19. $1 Trillion is a Thousand Billion Imagine that you spent $1 million/day beginning with the birth of Jesus—to spend a trillion dollars, you’d need to keep spending $1 million/day until mid-way through the 28th century. If you laid out $1 trillion end-to-end in $100 bills, you could circle the Earth at the equator 39 times. A trillion dollars could pay the salaries for a year of 18 million people at $55,000 per job.

  20. Afghanistan War Costs • Total U.S. defense spending in Afghanistan, FY 2010: $101 billion. • $1 million: cost to send one soldier to Afghanistan for one year • $400 per gallon: US military’s cost of gasoline in Afghanistan Source: Congressional Research Service Report RL 33110

  21. Afghanistan War vs. World Military Spending In 2010, the United States will spend more on the war in Afghanistan than any other country in the world spends in total on the military. Source: Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation; Reuters

  22. It’s a Choice! Are lengthy occupations of Iraq & Afghanistan how we want to spend our money? We have other threats!

  23. Where Does the Money Go? • War costs • Foreign military bases • War profiteers

  24. U.S. Foreign Military Bases • The US maintains about 1,000 foreign military bases • Foreign bases cost taxpayers about $250 billion per year Source: Foreign Policy in Focus

  25. Floating Bases • The U.S. has 11 nuclear powered aircraft supercarriers—the entire rest of the world has 11 carriers, and these are all much smaller than those of the U.S. • The U.S. maintains over 100 deployed ships and submarines at any given time—with 30,000 sailors afloat. Source: United States Navy; Project on Defense Alternatives

  26. Military Bases as the New Imperialism 95% of all the military bases on another country’s soil are U.S. bases. “Once upon a time, you could trace the spread of imperialism by counting up colonies. America's version of the colony is the military base.” Chalmers Johnson, 2004 Source: Chalmers Johnson

  27. The Movement to End Foreign Bases International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases: www.no-bases.org Source: International Network for the Abolition of Foreign Military Bases

  28. Foreign Bases: A Provocation The Declaration of Independence criticizes the British "for quartering large bodies of armed troops among us" and "for protecting them . . . from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these States.“ Foreign bases create enemies and make us less safe.

  29. Where Does the Money Go? • War costs • Foreign military bases • War profiteers

  30. War Profiteers Definition: Any person or organization that improperly profitsfrom warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. How do we define “improperly”?

  31. War Profiteers Are huge profits improper? Is it acceptable for some people to make literally millions of dollars--because thousands of others die? Is it improper if contractors lobby for wars that they benefit from financially? Is it improper if contractors’ products are shoddy? If contractors engage in fraud and highly wasteful practices?

  32. War ProfiteersExample: Lockheed Martin • 84% Percent of L/M profits derived directly from US tax payers, 2008 • $4.4 billion Amount of tax-payer money distributed as profit, 2008 • $30,939,233 Total compensation of Lockheed Martin CEO, 2007 • $28,253,165 Total compensation of 6 other executives, 2007 Sources: LM Company Statements; Company Pay.Com

  33. Lockheed Martin • Paid $577.2 million in fines because of contract fraud since 1995 • Found guilty of 50 instances of various kinds of misconduct (including contractor kickbacks, nuclear safety violations, fraud, etc.) • Consistently behind schedule and over budget. Source: Project on Government Oversight

  34. Lockheed Martin Cost Overrun Example: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter • Original contract: $5o million per plane • New estimate: $113 million per plane • Pentagon plan: purchase 2,450 • Total cost: $323 billion. A single weapons system is now estimated to cost almost one-third of what the health-care plan is expected to cost over a decade. Source: Tom Engelhardt

  35. Lockheed Martin: Forms of Influence • Political donations, 2008 cycle: $2,801,455 (from L/M PACs and individuals, per FEC) • Paid lobbying, 2008: $15,981,506 Source: Open Secrets

  36. Lockheed Martin: Forms of Influence Geographic distribution of subcontractors “The ideal weapons system is built in 435 Congressional districts and it doesn’t matter whether it works or not.” Alain C. Enthoven, economist and former Pentagon official In 2009, Lockheed Martin placed full-page ads in the Washington Post showing the number of jobs for F-22 construction, by Congressional district, throughout the nation.

  37. Lockheed Martin: Forms of Influence—The Revolving Door • Lockheed's former vice-president, Bruce Jackson, worked in the DOD, and then organized and chaired the “non-profit” Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (2002-03): It lobbied hard for the Iraq war—a war that dramatically increased Lockheed Martin profits • 8 other senior Bush Administration members had similar ties to Lockheed Martin Source: Hartung & Ciarrocca

  38. The War Profiteer Circle

  39. What Do Military Contractors Do? • Feed troops • Maintain facilities and equipment • Transport cargo • Wash clothes • Provide security guards for bases and diplomats • Engage in military actions Contractors are doing everything that used to be done solely by the military—for a profit.

  40. Contractors vs. Troops in Afghanistan Source: Congressional Research Service

  41. Who Are Mercenaries? Soldiers-for-hire or “private security contractors.” They are recruited from all over the world.

  42. Outsourcing the Military “The United States has created a new system for waging war. . . You turn the entire world into your recruiting ground. You intricately link corporate profits to an escalation of warfare and make it profitable for companies to participate in your wars.” “We live amidst the most radical privatization agenda in the history of our country.” Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill Source: Bill Moyers Interview

  43. Outsourcing the Military • Powerful companies promote war because it is profitable, not because of the interests of the nation • The profit motive can be counter to the military’s goals and the nation’s • Oversight of contractors is negligible and contractors often do poor jobs—costing lives and more money • Cost-plus contracts , the most common DOD-type contract, encourage waste and unnecessary spending

  44. Is It Possible to End War Profiteering FDR: • Supported broad increases in the corporate income tax; • Raised the excess-profits tax to 90 percent; and • Charged the Office of War Mobilization with the task of eliminating illegal profits.

  45. Outsourcing War & Democracy As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 1864

  46. Arming the World:Costs Associated with Aid & Sales

  47. U.S.: Arms Dealer to the World Arms Transfer Agreements with The World, By Supplier, 2008 Source: Congressional Research Service, Sept. 2009

  48. Sales to Other Countries:Example Israel Proposed U.S. Military Aid to Israel FY2009-FY2018: $30 billion Israel is required to use 74% of its aid money on U.S. purchases, totaling $24.4 billion. Source: Congressional Research Service: US Foreign Aid to Israel

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