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February 25, 2010
Graph of the Day for February 25, 2010
"And yet Congress has been corrupted by the military-industrial complex into believing that by voting for more defense spending, they are supplying "jobs" for the economy. In fact, they are only diverting scarce resources from the desperately needed rebuilding of the American infrastructure and other crucial spending necessities into utterly wasteful munitions. If we cannot cut back our long-standing, ever-increasing military spending in a major way, then the bankruptcy of the United States is inevitable." Chalmers Johnson in The Nation, 2008.
Defense Spending as Fraction of Federal Outlays
Source: The Heritage Foundation.
Hoven's Index for February 25, 2010
Defense spending as a percentage of GDP for various years:
1944 (World War II peak): 37.8%
1953 (Korean War peak): 14.2%
1968 (Vietnam War peak): 9.4%
1979 (post-WWII low point prior to 1993): 4.6%
1986 (peak under Reagan): 6.2%
1999-2001 (post-WWII low): 3.0%
2004-2007 (Iraq and Afghanistan): 4.0%
Sources: TruthAndPolitics.org and US Statistical Abstract (Table 459).
Graph of the Day Archive.