The Pros And Cons Of Military Spending

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Americans are no strangers to war, as they started with a revolution, fought a civil war, helped win two world wars, and while technically not at war currently, American soldiers are around the world fighting. Some say that the government needs to spend more on military spending, because of these fights, but the opposite is true. Just because “America needs to be kept safe” does not mean that the government should be hiding true reasons of military spending. The United States would benefit from decreasing military spending, as money could be put elsewhere, there is the matter of national debt, China and other countries will pass the United States’, and for the sake of future veterans.

There are several reasons why so much is spent on the …show more content…

That might be the main reason why military spending uses fifty-five percent of the deficit spending, but the other reasons are disheartening. (“Federal Spending”). A massive problem is that the Department of Defense does not have to deal with audit. According to Thomas E. Woods, Jr, a senior fellow at economic institute Ludwig von Mises, “In the 1990s the Defense Department actually secured from Congress a special exemption from the general audit requirement that exists for other federal agencies.” (Woods). This means this has been a problem for more than twenty-five years, and over time, it is becoming worse and worse. When the government goes back for spending information, there is no information to compare one year to another. In fact, some contractors get paid twice simply because there is no indication of them being paid once. (Woods) Another reason the military budget is so bloated is that firms in the government are willing to spend absurd amounts on researchers and hardware. In fact, the government pays so much for researchers that other companies do not have enough researchers.