CPNN (Culture of Peace News Network) bulletin of February 1, 2020

Military Swallows up THE AMERICAN BUDGET

Usually this bulletin puts the emphasis on positive actions that promote the culture of peace. But this month, it seems that the most important events were negative, and we need to look at them in detail.

In particular, the principal center of the American empire, the budget of the United States, is being almost completely swallowed up by military spending. Last month, the US congress, both Republicans and Democrats voted to adopt a military budget of $738 billion dollars.

As shown by a recent analysis, the military portion of the budget is even higher than reported because much of it is hidden from the eyes of the public. According to the analysis, the US government has spent a staggering $5.4 trillion on its post-9/11 war on terror, with an additional $1 trillion due for veterans’ care in the future. That’s an average of $23.7 billion monthly for the past 228 months.

Every indication says that this spending will continue.

Following the recent drone strike by the US military that killed Iran’s most powerful general, the big US defense companies Lockheed Martin and Raytheon scored huge military contracts worth $1.93 billion and $758 million respectively.

As reported in the CPNN article, “Traditionally, defense stocks tend to outperform the market during periods of budget growth,”  “shares of defense companies outperform the broader market in the six months after a crisis event in the Middle East.”

One can easily see that this is driven by a huge military-industrial-complex, which is perhaps better described as a “military-industrial-congressional complex.”

There is no indication of a political solution in the United States. Senators and representatives in the US tend to receive big campaign contributions from the companies and individuals that profit from military contracts, and this is necessary because their election campaigns are very costly. The vote for the military budget was 377-48 with 188 Democrats joining with 189 Republicans.

And not a single candidate for President in this year’s election campaign has proposed an alternative budget. It seems that the military budget is politically “untouchable.”

Where does this lead? Rather than trying to analyze the historical significance of these events here, I refer the reader to my blog for this month: “Why the bloated military budget threatens to bring down the American empire.“