YES, IT REALLY IS ALL ABOUT MILITARY SPENDING

From CounterPunch:

War Addiction Default

I thought for a moment, trying to come up with a simple way to explain the peculiar politics of a fake democracy where two equally pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist parties vie with genuine bitterness for patronage spoils and legal bribes, all the while ignoring the real wishes and needs of the public, and then it hit me: it is really all about US militarism and the unwillingness of the either of the two political parties to admit honestly to to American people how much they are being gouged to allow the US government and its corporate owners to continue in their attempt to control the world.

It really is that simple.

The US currently spends almost as much on its military and on paying for current and past wars in terms of interest on war debt and care for wounded and aging soldiers as the entire rest of the world spends on arms and war. Approximately $1.3 trillion gets spent each year in taxpayer’s dollars and in more borrowed funds (50 cents of every federal tax dollar goes to pay for the US military, the intelligence apparatus, veterans’ benefits and other related military costs). It is simply ludicrous, given this situation, to imagine that the US can significantly reduce its budget deficit either by raising taxes or by cutting social spending.

More here.

The popular notion, which I have until now believed, is that military spending is not the budget buster that some people make it out to be.  It's a lot of money, to be sure, but not as much as "entitlements."  So they say.  So the pie charts show.  But as the above linked article notes, when you throw in everything involved with American war-waging, you get a much, much, much bigger figure.  Half of everything we spend is on the war apparatus.  Fucking half.  It really is all about military spending.  

And what do all these wars get us?  Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

The concept of "strong defense" is sacrosanct in both American politics and American culture.  But this isn't defense.  It's offense.  It's about maintaining an empire that we're not supposed to call an empire.  It's about oil.  It's about "free trade," even though we're spending a lot of money for all that "free" trade, money that doesn't help you and me one damned bit.  It's about corporations' ability to make money, which doesn't create jobs here at home, and doesn't come back to America as taxes.  It's about stopping the terrorism that was inspired by our military's foreign presence in the first place, military intervention that justifies itself.

Eisenhower was more right about the military-industrial complex than anyone, including me, is ready to acknowledge.  It's sucking us dry.  And we're a bunch of chumps.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$