Mitt Romney, Military Mulla, and the Mutant Spending Mindset

There are two important graphs about military spending every American needs to understand. The first is what will happen to military spending in the United States if Mitt Romney vs. President Obama is elected. The second graph is the military spending in dollar amount by different countries. It’s important to look at both graphs to understand why politicians talk about the military budget the way that they do. Both spending graphs also help to get proper perspective on this issue – perspective that this country has totally lost in the Fear Forest Fun Ride of political rhetoric (…where clappy-sounding animatronic beasts from Chuck E. Cheese go to retire and scare all the lost children wandering the woods of hypocrisy, hysteria, and cultural hysteresis… just in case you were wondering…).

Military Spending Increase if Mitt Romney is Elected

First, we need to look at a telling graph that’s been circulating lately: Mitt Romney’s plan on military spending vs. Obama’s, vs. what the military has requested, and what the US has done in the past (graph on the right, from Foreign Policy Magazine).

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have many, many problems when it comes to their budget plan. Republicans have an even greater problem in how they market themselves as fiscal hawks who will get the deficit under control…

… now look at that graph…

Mitt Romney (and the Republican Party) plan to increase military spending to the highest level it has ever been. Ever. And this is not just a gentle increase in spending to build battleships and three submarines a year, it’s an MASSIVE spike flirting with the 900 billion dollar mark.

(It really is a shame that Republicans seem to hate NASA and science, because they could really use some of that cash… Maybe NASA should start a new marketing campaign: “Aliens Are Terrorists, Too!” They’d have a fleet of new shiny space shuttles in no time!)

Mitt Romney, we have a voter with a question: How is the spending boost possible if you want to cut taxes across the board, AND claim to balance the budget in one swoop of your Bain Capital magic wand? (… don’t forget that repealing Obamacare increases the deficit by over 100 billion dollars, so y’all will have to make up for that loss as well… ) Besides the 0.01% of the budget you’ll recoup from BBQ’ing Big Bird… where is all this money coming from, Mitt?

Inverted priorities and mutant mindsets.

Mitt Romney’s plan to increase spending – totally unneeded and above what the military actually requested – is a mutation of reality. It’s like the NRA is in control of the national budget. There are many, many citizens who want military spending to go DOWN; who are not happy about Obama’s increase, so to increase it by such a extreme amount AND claim that they are “the fiscally responsibly political party” is absurd. The reality in which republican “leaders” live gets more and more bizarre every day.

Graph: Military Spending by Dollar Amount

Military Spending Graph two is intended to give some perspective that is sorely lacking in this country when it comes to the US Military. It’s a dollar comparison of military spending by countries.

We all know that the United States likes “to be on top”, but this is ridiculous.

This is a 2011 graph showing military spending by nations, currently under President Obama… now look again at the first graph how much Mitt Romney wants to increase spending on the military. That adds another three and a half notches to the US high-tower of “defense” spending.

Keep in mind the US has ALWAYS spent this much more than every other country, so these blue bars are “stacking” on top of one another. It’s not like you build an aircraft carrier and it goes out of commission the next year – these amounts ADD to our current stockpile.

Any gut reactions? Astonishment, maybe? I get it that America likes to see stuff blow up (I dig illegal fireworks as much as the next red-blooded, freedom-loving American), but that’s clearly out of control. A budget measures the priorities of a nation, on a moral level… what does all this military spending say… that we like killing people?

A lot of people like to measure government spending as a percent of GDP instead of actual dollar amounts… by looking at this chart you can tell why!  When politicians say that military spending as a percent of GDP in 2011 was around 4.7% in the US… THAT number looks much easier to sell, doesn’t it? No wonder they use it!

So if you want to talk more about GDP, sure… let’s talk GDP comparisons WITH some perspective.

Who spends a greater percentage of GDP on military? One country at 8.7%: Saudi Arabia (and I have ample arguments why that would be due to its state of development as a nation). BUT don’t lose perspective: in dollar amount, that’s only 6.7% of what the US spends – Saudi Arabia doesn’t even show up on the second graph.

Just because a country spends a high percentage of GDP on military doesn’t mean they’re stockpiling more weapons: the dollar amounts buy the tanks, not the percentage of GDP. Besides Saudi Arabia, the US spends at least twice as much of GDP on military (except Russian that comes in at 3.9%, but again, use that in conjunction with the actual dollar amount).

Don’t forget other important percentages: The United States accounts for 41% of ALL money spent on militaries in the world. 41% of the total. Anyone else feel like US citizens are getting a little screwed in that arrangement?

Another number the US is winning: the highest number of soldiers killed.

In 2011 of all the coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan… the US accounted for 65%. The country spends over 700 billion dollars, 41% of all global spending, and we have the most people killed as a result.

America has all the highest numbers… I think republicans don’t know how to score this game.

Do we really want to be leading when these are the kinds of numbers we’re talking about? Mitt Romney thinks so. Looking at his budget plan he wants to win these numbers more so than anyone before him, ever.

A mutant mind that has been shaped by spreadsheets and bottom lines: the bigger the number, the bigger the winner. To the Republicans increased military spending means more military contracts for lobbyists and having the biggest dick in the room – they don’t see anything else. It’s like boy children with fire crackers, pay per view, and a vat of Vaseline.

This military obsession needs to get under control. These are the kind of number games and chest pounding politics that we want to lose. What would Jesus do, eh?

Republican Party… if you’re insecure about the size of your stick: buy a red Humvee, install a giant stereo, put on those PlayBoy Bunny mudflap things, and park it on the street in front of your house. Go find a younger mistress and take her to Vegas or Venice. Get hair plugs. But please, don’t give an EXTRA hundred and fifty billion little blue pills (every year) to the largest stick in history – it might need to see its doctor – damn thing might explode.

The Republican military plan ensures that more of our citizens get killed in pointless wars, and ensures that billions of dollars will be wasted in government at a time when we should be reducing the deficit. It ensures drastic cuts in important programs that define the culture and future of this country in the long run… having impacts like more American children growing to be ill-educated nit-wits because you cut education funding – all so republicans can pay for their precious, unnecessary, un-requested, and unscrupulous military spending circle jerk.