US military spending

14 Stories

Sanders: Our Contractors Guilty of War Profiteering

Vermont senator slams excess defense spending, suggests revival of Truman Committee

(Newser) - Bernie Sanders has long been a strong advocate for health care for all and affordable child care and housing, among other progressive platforms. But "America's national priorities are badly misplaced," the independent Vermont senator writes in an op-ed for the Atlantic , with too much money in Sanders'...

Watchdog: No One Held Accountable for $550M Pentagon Mess

New SIGAR report focuses on 20 G222 cargo planes that ended up as scrap metal

(Newser) - Back in 2014, a "lessons learned" memo from a government watchdog emerged over hundreds of millions of dollars wasted by the US Air Force on a fleet of faulty Italian-made military planes that ended up getting scrapped . Now, more than six years later, that same watchdog says no one...

US Hasn't Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill
US Hasn't Shown
Military Bands Are
Worth the Bill
GAO REPORT
Aug 17, 2017 1:14 PM CDT

US Hasn't Shown Military Bands Are Worth the Bill

GAO demands performance measures, Pentagon to oblige

(Newser) - A $437 million annual budget is allotted for US military bands. While that's less than 0.1% of the Department of Defense's total budget, it's also about as much as Latvia's entire defense budget, reports Fox News . The funds pay for instruments—the Air Force requested...

10 Biggest Spenders on War
10 Biggest Spenders on War 
May 7, 2017 12:04 PM CDT

10 Biggest Spenders on War

One country clearly leads the pack

(Newser) - Democrats and Republicans might squabble regularly about how much the US spends on its military, but one thing is not in doubt: Uncle Sam spends the most of any country in the world, accounts for more than a third of the entire planet's defense spending, and outpaces the next...

The US Totally Blew $3M on Boats for Afghanistan

Afghanistan is landlocked, the boats were abnormally expensive, and more

(Newser) - The US has wasted money in many ways in the Afghan war, but the Washington Post highlights a particularly egregious one revealed by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction yesterday: The US spent $3 million in 2010 to buy the Afghan police eight patrol boats. That works out to...

Obama Budget Looks to Expand Tax Breaks for Poor

Budget also calls for drastic shift in military footing

(Newser) - President Obama will release his annual budget blueprint today, and it's widely expected to go precisely nowhere in Congress. "It's designed primarily as an appeal to his Democratic base," writes Darren Samuelsohn at Politico . But the New York Times notes that Obama is using the opportunity...

Military Will Never Use New $34M Afghanistan Base

Critics say it's the most glaring boondoggle in a war full of them: Washington Post

(Newser) - When a two-star general visited the new 64,000-square-foot US military headquarters building at Camp Leatherneck in southern Afghanistan, he was impressed. It's "better appointed than any Marine headquarters anywhere in the world," he tells the Washington Post , before adding, "What the hell were they thinking?"...

Our Military Muscle Is a Wasteful Trap
 Our Military Muscle 
 Is a Wasteful Trap 
OPINION
Oct 9, 2012 12:05 PM CDT

Our Military Muscle Is a Wasteful Trap

But US leaders can't seem to think outside the box: Tom Englehardt

(Newser) - Our leaders in Washington—and this applies to Democrats and Republicans—are stuck on "militarized autopilot," writes Tom Englehardt in the Los Angeles Times . Consider that America "spends as much on its military as the next 14 powers (mostly allies) combined," he writes. With that kind...

Pentagon: We're Not Planning for Spending Cuts

Says it'll instead pressure Congress to change course

(Newser) - The Pentagon has no plans in place to deal with the $500 billion in spending cuts theoretically heading its way thanks to the supercommittee’s failure —and it refuses to make any now. “We are not planning for the” cuts, a Pentagon spokesman tells the New York Times...

Costly News: US Military's Equipment Is 'Geriatric'

Average F-15 is 25 years old

(Newser) - Precious few Americans drive cars manufactured in 1964—the same isn't true of the US Air Force. The average age of an Air Force plane ranges from 25 years for an F-15 to 47 years for refueling aircraft, the Wall Street Journal reports in a look at a pricey...

House GOP Refuses All Defense Cuts

Military spending a major point of contention at federal budget talks

(Newser) - House Republicans resoundingly rejected even modest cuts in defense spending last week, sending an uncomfortable message to leaders negotiating cuts for a debt ceiling deal. After three days of floor debate, the GOP shot down even modest reductions of military spending, including cuts for military bands or the Pentagon's...

US War Pricetag Nears $4 Trillion
 US Wars Price Tag Nears $4T 
Jun 30, 2011 4:52 AM CDT

US Wars Price Tag Nears $4T

Action in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan approaching cost of WWII: study

(Newser) - The real cost of American military action in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan dwarfs the $1.3 trillion appropriated on Capitol Hill, according to a study by Brown University's nonpartisan Eisenhower Research Project. The study estimates that the war bills already paid or obligated to be paid are at least...

CBO: Budget Deal Cuts Much Less Than Advertised

Spending only going down $352M

(Newser) - You know that 2011 budget pact that was supposed to have yielded the " biggest annual spending cut in history "? Well, it turns out it'll produce less than 1% of the promised $38 billion in savings by the end of this budget year, according to a Congressional Budget...

World Military Spending Zooms to $1.6T Record

United States' $698B six times higher than No. 2 China

(Newser) - Global military spending hit a new high last year, inching up 1.3% to reach a staggering $1.6 trillion, according to a Swedish think tank. The increase itself, however, is one of the lower hikes in years, a slowdown caused by the economic crisis in many Western nations. US...

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