There will no doubt be a honeymoon period with President Obama as he settles into the Oval Office. Despite the messianic hype I am keeping an open mind, but I am looking closely at the decisions and policy being made. One of the things I am most interested in is the US defense budget. In an earlier post, I made the point that the amount of money spent on the US military is insane and obscene, when compared with other superpower nations. Given the context of the global financial meltdown and the impossible debt over the heads of the American people, you would think that military spending would be at least moderated. Well, Obama has revealed his budget outline for the next financial year and it seems to be business as usual. Meet the new boss, just like the old boss. The plan is to increase spending by 2.1% on last year to $534 billion. However, this is not a real figure. Refer to my earlier post which shows the amount more like $1.4 trillion. Despite the rhetoric about chasing down failed banker bonuses, I can only deduce that the new administration is just not being serious. They will cling onto their global empire, even if the people have to live in tents and window shop in ghost malls because they have no job and no money. Some sensible congressmen are calling for a 25% reduction in military spending. That would be more like it. Even the Soviets cut back on their military budgets during the collapse of the USSR in the 80s.
The truth is that the main US export industry is not pornography, Hollywood, fast food franchises or tacky TV shows, it's killing machinery and the human misery that proceeds from it. Warfare is profitable and business is business. The solution, in purely economic terms, is for the US to stop buying bombs for "defence"and increase the export of bombs to other nations. One would have a vested interest in starting wars between foreign states to stimulate the market, wouldn't one? Rest assured, the marketing department (read CIA) are working hard on that one.
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