the 949 billion national security budget ate my paycheck:
Fred Kaplan walks us to 713.1 billion, but doesn't
include interest payments for past military spending, the state department budget for foreign military aid and financing, or - assuming it's not just tucked under related budget items - the
60 billion or so we super secretly spend on intelligence. If we ballpark 68% of the 260 billion (from the OMB's summary tables) for 2009's interest payments it's another 176 billion for the phenomenal state of our past and present defense, apparently so insufficient that democrats and republicans alike are demanding even more. Add that all together and you're most of the way to a trillion.
Devoting 7% of our economic activity to losing wars and being fucking idiot loons sounds about like the right idea. We will never see any of that money again.