[Strategerist]

After 8 years of Clinton, over 25% of the "defense" budget was spent on liberal social-justice topics like the above-mentioned AID research. Obama is on track to make it 50%, and that doesn't include all the 'nation building' that DoD pays for that is really nothing but foreign aid.

Do you have actual sources for the above? I know the budget quite well and I'm dubious that all of what you are seemingly referring to adds up to more than 1% of the budget.

What's really killing the defense budget is compensation and benefits for personnel.

[Phlyer]

Do you have actual sources for the above?

I don't have a handy source for the Clinton number, but the reason I used Clinton instead of Obama was that I did see the number on Clinton - I just can't find a copy of the report. You can, of course, just decide that I'm lying because I admittedly can't prove what I contend.

The analysis segregated out the things that most people would not have considered essential to the defense of our country - most notably AIDS research, but it also included a host of liberal social measures like putting midnight basketball courts for civilians under 'military construction' and a host of social engineering through training in PC topics. And, in another admitted weakness to my 'proof', he provided anecdotal examples like I have above, without an exhaustive listing that 'proved' the number really added up to 25% of the total. There was a graph that showed the decline in defense spending under Clinton, and within that a wedge showing how much of what was still considered defense spending would not have been under that total before Clinton.

Nonetheless, I found it compelling and obviously still consider it likely to be correct. Whether it's 25% or 15%, it's still big enough to warrant significant reduction in the defense budget without real compromise to military effectiveness.