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The U.S. national debt reached $20 trillion for the first time ever last Friday after President Trump signed a bipartisan bill temporarily raising the nation's debt limit for three months.
While at Camp David, Mr. Trump, with the stroke of his presidential pen, increased the statutory debt last Friday by approximately $318 billion, according to the Treasury Department. Before the bill's completion, the U.S. debt was sitting around $19.84 trillion.
The legislation allowed the Treasury Department to start borrowing again immediately after several months of using "extraordinary measures" to avoid a financial default. The bill passed last Thursday 80-17 in the Senate and in the House 316-90 on Friday. Around $15 billion in emergency funding for Hurricane Harvey recovery efforts was attached to the borrowing measure.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/national-debt-hits-historic-20-trillion-mark/
[That works out to just shy of $62,000 per American. --Ed.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 15 2017, @05:53PM (2 children)
Besides the obvious fact that the military is a way to scoop up otherwise indigent lower-class people, and put them to work doing something that at least appears productive, the military is also a boondoggle for high-tech industry who gets to build very expensive devices and then blow them up.
More over, a government is an organization founded on the idea that it gets to coerce people into allocate resources one way or another; the military is the metaphorical gun in Uncle Sam's hand.
So, no. There's no way ever that military spending is going to be reduced. Ever. The only time a government ever reduces such spending is forced to do, either by another government or by the implosion of the economy-of-coercion that it has established to prop itself up.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Saturday September 16 2017, @12:59AM
Ehm, you are aware that USA spent about 9% of GDP on its milotary back in the 60s? Heck, most western countries spent 2-3 times (relative to gdp) as much on their military as they do today. (Globally it has dropped to a third compared to the early 60s, fiddle with graph below to check it out)
If you met in absolute values - as long as increases lags behind inflation that's fine...
Here are the nordic countries (js-req) [worldbank.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 16 2017, @05:10PM
Yes, the two major jobs programs are military for the poor and research for the middle class. Above that I guess jobs programs are unnecessary.