A cursory analysis of the graph reveals the inordinate percentage of funds that the government devoted to defense spending in 1962. While this amount is mostly admissible to the Space Race, the nuclear race with the Soviets, the Vietnam War, etc., it does put our current defense budget in a healthy perspective. Nevertheless, defense remains the largest category of the federal budget.
Understandably, safety net program spending shot up in light of the recent recession and its consequent rise of unemployment, a lagging indicator of the well-being the United States economy. These programs include food stamps, housing assistance, and payments to the unemployed.
"Everything else" contains every single facet of federal spending not enumerated on the graph, such as NASA, energy, natural resources, agriculture, housing and urban development, education, science, justice, etc. While many of these governmental bodies require less funding than others, "everything else" still seems smaller than it should be (at least to keep student loans down).
What this graph does not reflect--yet is still important to note--is the fact that the growth of federal spending over the past 50 years has been more or less congruent with the growth of our economy. In 192, the United States Government spent 18 percent of its GDP, essentially $707 billion. In 2011, the United States Government spent 24 percent of its GDP, essentially $3.1 trillion.
While any drastic change to our current budget would be unlikely to pass--and cutting entitlement programs seems to be near impossible--do you see any improvements you would make to our current budget allotments? Do you think the heat the government has taken for its bloated military budget is less valid considering the defense budget in 1962? What do you think about the meteoric rise of Medicare and Medicaid?
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2 comments:
i feel the government is probably taking more heat for the defense budget these days than in 1962 because the "everything else" budget has gone down since 1987 and people who like everything else are looking for another area to blame for stealing funds. Also in 1962, despite the larger defense budget, it was probably frowned upon to suggest scaling back military spending, what with the strongly anti-soviet sentiment most everywhere in the US.
I would agree that the anti-Soviet political conditions in the 1960's necessitated greater military spending. However, I do think that we can't just group "people who like everything else" into one category, because "everything else" basically applies to everyone at some point or another.
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