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English IV
Nov. 4, 2014
Military Budget Needs to Shrink
A military is one the most important things in a nation. The United
States is regarded as having the best in the modern world but, is it too
wasteful? Our military has a population of over 300 million and the spending
budget of several countries put together (H.J. Res 124) in which our economy
is suffering from it and U.S. citizens are beginning to protest the conflicts our
military is involved. Even countries abroad are protesting against expansion
overseas. The U.S. military should shrink for the benefit of its
country and its citizenry in order to create a sustainable future.
Budgeting has been a very important part of our government for
hundreds of years, including the military/defense budget, but in the past 20
years that price has skyrocketed. In the annual budget meeting for 20112012, our defense budget was recorded at approximately 697 billion
dollars (Shah) and gradually growing at its rate. Much of this money goes to
maintenance and purchasing/research of new technology for our military like
UAVs, missiles and the development of the new F-35 fighter jet so to curb

spending by congress Chuck Hagal has proposed cuts to the defense budget
so the military can sustain itself in the future; proposing to replace the large
A-10 plane inventory with the F-35 (Simeone). This removes a large portion

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of spending because the upkeep for the A-10 can easily add up since the
plane has been in service for 50 years.
Plus a single UAV costs 28.5 million just to operate and the
manufacturing of the infamous Tomahawk missiles costs 1 million apiece
which is all too much. We account for nearly 40 percent of the worlds total
spending on military spending- ( Shah). The only consolation is that we own
44 percent of the arms industry but many of it is privately owned by big
companies like General Dynamics. Which many of them rely on U.S. military
contracts for business and the money is not circulated enough to be used for
more spending leaving the U.S. military deeper into debt. This graph below
shows the top three spending countries in the world:

Arms Sales 2013 (Billions)

USA
Russia

31%
44%

France
Other Countries

8%
17%

/(Shah, Anup World Military Spending Global Issues. June

30,2013. globalissues.org. Oct 3, 2014
globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-issues)/.

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This graph demonstrates how large the U.S. spending maintains in the
arm sales market which was described as 44 percent. The total being
approximately 1 trillion in USD, half of what even the federal government
earns yearly but we actually spend 440 billion on weapons. Numbers have
continued to grow into larger figures since WW2 but skyrocketed in the past
in the past 30 years (Shah). This habit grew out of the exponential growth of
our spending from 287 billion to 530 billion back in 2001 (Frank). Then the
budget even increased more because of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflict

winding down, to cover the war debts. Including the transportation of

soldiers and equipment back home plus support to allied governments in the
surrounding area costing to the upwards of millions of U.S. dollars. The
Friends Committee in the National Legislation says that 37% of U.S. tax
allocations go to help the same defense budget-(Shah).
The growth was understandable and needed for America back then but
the war is over with a standing army not needed as much. The catastrophe
of 9/11 scared many Americans and we had no choice but to fight the war to
prevent more disasters that could happen. Even when the numerous wars
ended since then, the budgeting for the military has risen to historic rates
surpassing even WW2 standards. Luckily, Obama plans to do what is needed
and that is to reduce that amount but the problem is our presidency. A future
president can completely do away with the plan and do what he feels like he
should since being Commander-in-Chief gives special rewards including the
military. Federal government has to come to understand the benefits of
following Obama and sticking with it (Simeone). Many misunderstand that its
congress that makes the budget and we have to get people aware of this fact
so something can happen that benefits people.
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Federal spending compared to our revenue exceeds revenue earned
from taxes. Clearly putting citizens at risk to having to pay more taxes to
cover the obvious loss the federal government is experiencing. Including the

management of our budgeting plan to shave off spending to match the

revenue our federal government earns each year. For 2013, the difference
between the two reached 1.08 trillion which is an astronomical amount
compared to 1995. As for the military budget, they account for 602 billion,
nearly 1/6 of all spending. This is more than the GDP of certain countries
around the world. The intentions are good but something has to stop from
pushing the U.S. farther into falling into ultimate bankruptcy, the debt is past
already past 16 trillion.
When the U.S. formed, our military was already protecting the people
and has a long list of achievements but in this day and age is it really
necessary? With the innovation of technology, unmanned has become the
new thing with whole jobs getting replaced by machines. The government
has spent much money already to have this technology open for use even if
its very expensive and with this, we maintain a world presence with over
100 bases in over countries which bring the question if those are even
necessary? Recently, the U.S. plans to increase their presence on the island
of Japan but have met strong opposition by the Japanese.
The plan called for condensing space but ultimately increased
equipment storage and American soldiers on Okinawa. Many Japanese
citizens are rallying to fight the movement through non-violence so far but
its clear their government support the move. A protestor, Nishikawa, had
this to say I thought of it as other peoples business. It didnt occur to me

how a base could destroy your living environment, how much pain it causes
(Tomamoto, Newland).
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Even the governor of the district stated people of the prefecture are very
unhappy with change(Tomamoto, Newland).
In addition to the 38,000 soldiers on shore there are 11,000 based on
ships, 5,000 civilian workers and 43,000 family-( Newland, Tomamoto).
Expansion of the base will increase these numbers and the potential danger
of storing more munitions. Although U.S. has met snags in their plan
marines spokesperson said We do our best to reach out to the people of
Okinawa and try to help them understand one, how important that island
itself is to the Asian-Pacific region and two, how important their support is to
the U.S. -(Newland, Tomamoto) as their counterstatement. Hot debate is
going on with the continuation of this endeavor but this is just one of the
many examples where we push our presence onto other countries who dont
want it.
Another prime example is the conflicts in the Middle East. Many of our
own citizens question the validity of putting our soldiers into harms way. Just
last year, hundreds protested in San Francisco to halt the war at all costs.
There are more examples like this but as it goes on do we really need to
continue doing what were doing? The military grows from the growth of its

spending and pushes more Americans onto foreign soil where they are in
constant danger.
Then recently Congress has released new estimates of budget costs for
2014 in their resolution appropriations H.J. 124 with defensive spending still
over 50% of money allocations for the incoming year plus a huge emphasis
on base maintenance/construction ( H.J. Res. 124). The most surprising fact
about this info is that this is the alleged cuts, defense was supposed to

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receive to limit costs but the price is far too high. Obama has done very little in his
presidencyand he needs to do something drastic before something even
worse happens (Frank). Congress needs to change its ways if we can expect
anything to happen now or in the future so that we can all benefit in a
prosperous manner. Some good examples would be a increase in social
security, welfare, or maybe even the minimum wage but any of these could
help the standard of living in the United States.
Suggestions have been made like the overall reduction in long-term
deficit spending followed by an increase in taxes for the wealthy so that
everything we do to improve quality of life at home wont be a waste (Frank).
Presently, downsizing in personal is happening in all the military branches
but the budget for research and maintenance has not changed (Shah) and

these are where the big costs come in. These numbers total in the millions if
not billions of dollars and they add up especially when Americas military
craves for more technology as years pass. Many dont see the inevitable
bankruptcy coming and are only aware of the national debt clock going up.
The need to shrink the U.S. needs to happen sooner than later before
the burden arrives to hurt everyone. It has been growing ever since the eve
of WW2 and on paper, the future of the U.S. is spiraling downwards with no
foreseeable end to it. The statistics shown above point out obvious flaws that
need to fix somehow. People are protesting and disagreeing with current
reforms. The debt just continues to run up and leaders are only making it
worse with public programs that give out money. The prime example given
was the oversea base of Okinawa. Increasing the area with 50 million dollars
to upgrade the base and angering the regions
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residents. The same is happening in the Philippines but Japan is a hotbed of
activity in the world and the worlds eyes are set here, wondering how far the
protesters will go to resist change.
Military tech is expensive and the movement for the new age of
robotics by the President is mind boggling. Putting the debt further by
millions of USD for weapons and repair easily, if accepted by Congress. The
need for war is low and allowing the military to continue is wrong. We simply
cant continue on this track of impending doom of massive debts and war so

something needs to happen. Shrinking the military has the potential to do it

but needs full support because something like this is unprecedented with
benefits of improving our economy and improving relations in U.S. foreign
policy. Just cutting back could immensely help us in the long run benefitting
us and effectively ending current crises.

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Works Cited
H.J. Res. 124, Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2015. cbo. Congressional
Budget Office. September 16, 2014. Cbo.gov September23, 2014
http://cbo.gov/publication/45727

Simeone, Nick Hagel Outlines Budget Reducing Troop Strength, Force Structure
U.S.Department of Defense. DoD News. Feb. 24, 2014. defense.gov
September 30, 2014. defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=121703
Frank, Barney. Why Obama Can-and-must-Cut Defense Spending. Alantic. The Alantic.
Dec12, 2012. Thealantic.com. September 30, 2014.
Thealantic.com/politics/archive/2012/12/why-obama-can-and-must-cut-defensespending/266138
Shah, Anup. World Military Spending. Global Issues. June 30,2014. Globalissues.org.
Oct 3, 2014 globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending
Arata Tomamoto and John Newland. In Okinawa, the war isnt over: Protests aimed at U.S.
base expansion. NBC News. NBC World News. April 13, 2013.
Worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/13/17598118-in-okinawa-the-war-isnt-overprotests-aimed-at-us-base-expansion?lite