EU Military Expenditure

[catswiththum]

The United States currently pays for 75% of NATO expenses (hardware, logistics, trans., manpower, etc).

70 years after WWII, the largest European nations - individually and as NATO members - have consistently refused to increase their defense budgets, content to let the U.S. provide the bulk of what is necessary for their defense.

The EU is a fragile construction at best with continued wrangling over cooperation between member nations and how much power the EU parliament in Brussels should wield.

Whether EU nations individually begin to take more responsibility for their own defense or in concert with other member nations, the U.S. can not afford to continue our subsidies at the current levels.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-31619553

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by catswiththum

The United States currently pays for 75% of NATO expenses (hardware, logistics, trans., manpower, etc).

70 years after WWII, the largest European nations - individually and as NATO members - have consistently refused to increase their defense budgets, content to let the U.S. provide the bulk of what is necessary for their defense.

The EU is a fragile construction at best with continued wrangling over cooperation between member nations and how much power the EU parliament in Brussels should wield.

Whether EU nations individually begin to take more responsibility for their own defense or in concert with other member nations, the U.S. can not afford to continue our subsidies at the current levels.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-31619553

Spoken like an actual fiscal conservative.

Regards,

D-Ray

[Dondilion]

Probably they have seen through the Russians are coming hysteria and perceived that the Americans are more than willing to pay.

[Tom Joad]

How much of our defense budget goes to NATO compared to how much for for our Wars of Imperialist Aggression in the Middle East and our giveaways to our own Military Industrial Complex for overpriced contracts for shit we don't need?

[catswiththum]

The DOD budget:

http://comptroller.defense.gov/Porta...Green_Book.pdf

The Center for Strategic and International Studies Report - takes DOD to task for no effective budget mandates or cost controls:

http://csis.org/publication/fy2016-d...nd-data-points

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by catswiththum

The DOD budget:

http://comptroller.defense.gov/Porta...Green_Book.pdf

The Center for Strategic and International Studies Report - takes DOD to task for no effective budget mandates or cost controls:

http://csis.org/publication/fy2016-d...nd-data-points

Seriously?

Your going to try the old "instead of answering the question, throw a 275 page government document at them" trick?

Dude, I worked for a government agency for over 30 years. I've used that one myself a time or two. But it's not going to fly with me.

[catswiththum]

Originally Posted by Tom Joad

Seriously?

Your going to try the old "instead of answering the question, throw a 275 page government document at them" trick?

Dude, I worked for a government agency for over 30 years. I've used that one myself a time or two. But it's not going to fly with me.

I have no idea - the #s are no doubt in the DOD budget reports for the years you are interested in and they are readily available.

The categories are not the best and as the CSIS noted, the DOD, the General Accounting Office, and the Congressional Budget Office all calculate their #s with different criteria.

I'm sure some gov. office has a synopsis of the cost of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

News accounting (Bloomberg, Wash Post, Time) all over the map - from 1.6 trillion to 6 trillion. A lot of money, regardless.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by catswiththum

I have no idea - the #s are no doubt in the DOD budget reports for the years you are interested in and they are readily available.

The categories are not the best and as the CSIS noted, the DOD, the General Accounting Office, and the Congressional Budget Office all calculate their #s with different criteria.

I'm sure some gov. office has a synopsis of the cost of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

News accounting (Bloomberg, Wash Post, Time) all over the map - from 1.6 trillion to 6 trillion. A lot of money, regardless.

Well I'm not going to pick though a 275 page government document. I did more than my share of "reviewing" boring assed New York City Phonebook sized documents while I was a government employee.

However, I am pretty damned sure that what we spend on NATO is a spit in the ocean compared to what we have pissed away on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our government giveaway programs to the Military Industrial Complex.

So before we go after nickels and dimes, I favor going after hundreds of billions in waste.

[catswiththum]

I agree wholeheartedly about going after the waste - my post about EU/NATO should have been clearer - I am more concerned about them carrying their share of the load than the actual #s.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by catswiththum

I am more concerned about them carrying their share of the load than the actual #s.

Yeah, that's a real pisser ain't it?

With all that money they save on defense, those damn Euro-commies are able to afford free health care and awesome public transportation.

Seriously though, who the Hell are we defending them from?

The big bad Russians?