BF2S Forums Where is Afghan Politics Going?

Turquoise wrote:

FEOS wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

Here's the sticking point though...  if we're aiming for smaller government eventually, doesn't this also have to include drawing back involvement in foreign conflicts in addition to reducing entitlement spending?

Sure. But the biggest difference-maker in the budgetary problems we are facing is entitlement and other defense spending, not the spending on Iraq and Afghanistan. That's why the statement that "those wars are 'breaking us'" is so ridiculous. They are noise in comparison to the real culprits in our budget.

What are the culprits among the defense budget?

I believe the biggest expenses are personnel-related (pay and benefits), followed by major acquisition programs (F-35, major space programs, ships, etc). Of the top of my head...

Edit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_defense_budget#By_title

For 2009-2010, it looks like operations and maintenance was the highest category of spending, followed by personnel, then procurement.

Turquoise wrote:

FEOS wrote:

Turquoise wrote:

What are the culprits among the defense budget?

I believe the biggest expenses are personnel-related (pay and benefits), followed by major acquisition programs (F-35, major space programs, ships, etc). Of the top of my head...

Wouldn't those continue to be issues with our current level of interventionism?

See my edit.

Not necessarily. If we cut our interventionism, our O&M costs would drop dramatically, as would our personnel costs (extra funds required for tax exclusion, hazardous duty pay, hostile fire pay, etc).