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Pentagon takes 56 cents of every dollar

The way to begin to see the real fiscal impact of the war machine is to begin with the memorandum line on p. 526 of the main budget volume where "receipts by source" are shown. This discloses that of $198 billion in receipts, $51 billion is in trust funds. This leaves available for the general purposes of the government $147 billion. If you next turn to the table on "budget outlay by function," you will find $81.5 billion for national defense. So national defense takes 55 percent of this $147 billion. Then if you look more closely you will see near the foot of the expenditure table $2.8 billion for civilian and military pay increases. The Pentagon's share of that, for its employees in and out of uniform (the Pentagon employs nearly one-half of all the civilian employees in the government) is $2.5 billion. When that additional pay item is added, the total for national defense is $83 billion, or better than 56 cents of every dollar available.
Uncle Sam's Con Man Budget in I. F. Stone's Weekly Vol. XVII, No. 9, 1969
I. F. Stone

Posted on:
2009.06.16 -0500

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