[JoeFromSidney]

No matter how you slice it, global charity and domestic charity continue to kill the ability of the USA to develop weapon systems for our future defense. The list of cutbacks and cancelations of weapon programs is very lengthy, but swamped by the list of new welfare programs domestically and global charity.

How come we can't find enough money to fund the Department of Defense, but every year we spend more money than we did the year before subsidizing bastardy?

[Dont_Tread_On_Me_888]

How come we can't find enough money to fund the Department of Defense, but every year we spend more money than we did the year before . . .

1] Raw dollars for Defense are rising, so it gives the false impression the money we are spending on Defense is increasing. However, if you adjust it for inflation, we have had a huge decrease in funding for the DOD. The easiest way to look at inflation adjusted dollars is to NOT look at raw dollars on the budget, but look at the % of budget each department gets form the 100% total of total spending. That is what I based my earlier post on when I said JFK was spending 46-48% of total on Defense but Bush is psending only 16% of total spending on Defense.

2] Much of the Defense budget is geared around the war, replacement parts, logistics, pay, etc. related to the war, and a far less percent of the total DOD budget is going for R&D and procurement. In JFK's time, not only was the amount spent for the DOD far greater, but a larger % of that went to R&D and procurement. Same with Reagan.