Monday, September 28, 2015

Defense Spending Increase

Whoever the next president is going to be, this person is going to have to make a decision about defense spending and whether to increase it, decrease it, or maintain the current rate.

Donald Trump, a Republican candidate, has made increasing defense spending one of the pillars to his campaign’s platform.  In doing so, he was brought the defense spending debate to the forefront of the 2016 Presidential Campaign.

From 2010 to 2015 the total defense budget has deceased over 25% based on numbers from the U.S. Department of Defense (National Defense Budget Estimates).  If what is budgeted for FY2016 is included, it would be a 31% decrease over those 6 years.

The year 2010, was extraordinary, in that we were in the middle of 2 conflicts.  So, perhaps that 2010 number is an anomaly.  The question then becomes, have we cut back too far?  Have we gone from one extreme (spending too much) to another (spending too little) or have we just “righted the ship”?  Only time will tell.

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