The U.S. Cut Military Spending in 2013, While These Two Global Powers Did the Opposite

Global military spending dropped by nearly two percent in 2013, led by the United States which dropped it’s spending by 7.8 percent.

By contrast, the military industrial complexes in Russia and China are bustling; seeing a 4.8 and 7.4 percent increase, respectively.

The U.S. dropped spending from roughly $690 Billion in 2012, to $640 Billion in 2013, shrinking to 3.8 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

The reduction is noted in real terms, which means the calculations – made by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute – are adjusted for inflation.

Global military expenditure fell by 1.9 percent, to $1747 billion. It was the second consecutive year spending fell, and 2013 saw the higher rate of decrease, by 0.4 percent compared to 2012.

“A part of the fall ($20 billion of the $44 billion nominal fall) can be attributed to the reduction in outlays for Overseas Contingency Operations — that is, overseas military operations, chiefly in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the SIPRI report reads.

For the first time since 2003, Russia spent a larger percentage of it’s Gross Domestic Product on military expenses than the United States.

Lots of people ask why America is not in Bible prophesy in these Last Days. My personal opinion is that America as we are today will not exist when the Antichrist comes on the scene. I think America is going to fall and fall hard. It will exist in some form. Maybe as part of the EU or something. But, America as a powerful, meaningful nation will not exist. Economic failure, or maybe even a military failure.

A big Amen to your entire post. I share your sentiments.

I personally believe that the Psalm 83 war will kick off, followed by WW III (the Ezekiel war). Where will America be? I am not sure. Not every war is listed in the Bible (WWI, WWII, Korea, etc). Only those wars that God has given us insight to, and all revealed prophecy seems usually involve Israel).

I believe America will fall as you do. We may still yet have a great role to play, as God assigns us. But a large segment of the American people are now stiff necked, lazy, and godless. Judgment is perhaps already upon us.

The Pentagon has far more money than it knows what to do with or can keep track of.

Really? The waste and abuse associated with Medicare, Medicaid, and SS far exceeds what is happening with DOD spending.

Medicare And Medicaid Fraud Is Costing Taxpayers Billions

"When President Obama pushed through his health care bill, he cut more than $500 billion (over 10 years) in future Medicare spending in order to claim the bill was “paid for.” A better option would have been to aggressively target Medicare and Medicaid fraud, which could have provided the same amount of savings, and possibly more.

For example, federal authorities announced on May 2 they had arrested 107 health care providers, including doctors and nurses, in several cities and charged them with cheating Medicare out of $452 million.

The problem isn’t new. Federal officials set up the Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 2007, which visited at random nearly 1,600 businesses in Miami, ground zero for Medicare fraud, that had billed Medicare for durable medical equipment. Officials found that nearly a third of the businesses, 481, didn’t even exist, yet they had billed Medicare for $237 million over the previous year, according to National Public Radio.

Indeed, scamming Medicare and Medicaid is so lucrative that the Russian and Nigerian mobs have gotten involved. And one of the New York crime families has moved to Florida because defrauding Medicare is both more lucrative and less dangerous than some of the traditional organized crime activities.

And Medicaid is just as bad, or worse. New York City has been a huge problem for Medicaid with one former official suggesting that 40 percent of NYC’s Medicaid payments are “questionable. ” The New York Times, in a multi-story expose several years ago, reported that a Brooklyn dentist had filed 991 claims in one day.

How much Medicare and Medicaid fraud is there? No one knows for sure. In 2010 the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report claiming to have identified $48 billion in what it termed as “improper payments.” That’s nearly 10 percent of the $500 billion in outlays for that year. However, others, including U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, suggest that there is an estimated $60 to $90 billion in fraud in Medicare and a similar amount for Medicaid. Big money!

The scheme to budget/spend enough to support two wars simultaneously was developed decades ago & is severely outdated. Combat is much different now than it was then.

How different? Have you ever been in combat? Conventional warfare remains a very real threat whether it is on the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, the Middle East, or Europe. Treaty obligations will guarantee US involvement.

In addition, we're long past being able to afford our military adventures around the world. We borrow money to dump billions into places like Iraq & Afghanistan & leave it to our kids & grandkids to pay the bills. It's been this way for a long time, across multiple administrations.

Is it our adventurism or is it do the fact that countries like Iraq invade their neighbors and provide sanctuary for terrorists who attack us and our allies? Was it adventurism to go into Afghanistan to pursue the people who attacked us on 9/11? Do you believe that militant Islamic fundamentalism is an existential threat to us and our allies? Is it our adventurism that prompted the Russians to takeover part of Ukraine?

As far as our kids and grandkids paying the bills, SS and Medicare represent an unfunded liability of over $60 trillion. And we are spending trillions more on Medicaid and food stamps. And we have just added another huge entitlement program called Obamacare.

Well, given the Pentagon's resistance to outside audits, I don't know how sure we can be.

As someone who spent 8 years as a naval officer, I trust the military to be better stewards of our national resources than the bureaucrats and recipients of the entitlement programs.

That said, just because Medicaid, Medicare, etc are also very wasteful & need reform does not mean the same is not true for the Pentagon. I mean, Medicare is not "misplacing" billions of dollars in Iraq. That takes a special level of incompetence & apathy, finely honed over the decades.

The lack of audit trails does not mean that the money was stolen by anyone in the Pentagon. When you are in a combat zone, it is a little more difficult to get all the paperwork you need. I spent a year in Vietnam overseeing logistical operations. You don't have the same controls you have stateside or in a non-war zone. When someone lobs rockets and blows up facilities, you don't bother recording the serial numbers of the typewriters that were lost.

Most of the Pentagon money is in no-year accounts, which makes it more difficult to audit them.

I mean, Medicare is not "misplacing" billions of dollars in Iraq.

No, the program is "misplacing" billions of dollars right here.

How big is Medicare fraud?

In a May 2012 report, FBI Special Agent David Welker said, “The United States spends more than $2.5 trillion on health care annually, and rough estimates indicate that anywhere from 3 (percent) to 10 percent of all health care expenditures are attributed to fraud." If you do Welker's math, the annual cost of fraud ranges from $75 billion to $250 billion.

In Miami, there’s no shortage of Medicare fraud to keep prosecutors busy

Owner, manager of Chandler hospice charged with Medicare fraud in Oklahoma

FBI - New York Doctor Charged in Alleged Multi-Million-Dollar Medicare Fraud Scheme

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