Where Does the Money Go?

A breakdown of US Government spending in 2010, from Wikipedia

I'm not going to offer much commentary, here, especially since my last post was a tad, um, long.  What I want to point out, though, is that our Congresspeople and President have recently been fighting over a budget for the coming year.  Mostly - as I understand it - the discussion about where to make cuts is focused on the upper-left quadrant of this graph.  My question is, what about that gigantic maroon section?  What about the 18.74% (in 2010, almost $700 billion) we're spending on our military every year?  In 2010 the USA's military operations  - that is, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - budget ($283 billion) alone was larger than our Education, Justice, Agriculture, Energy, Labor, Commerce, and  Environmental (EPA and Interior) spending combined.  What does that say about our priorities, as a nation?  What does that say about the parties that we enthusiastically vote for?

Keep in mind, while you listen to the news talk about the vehement arguments between Democrats and Republicans over a hundred million dollars here and a hundred million there that neither party - including the President - supports a reduction in our military spending, even though a mere 10% cut therein would more than cover the total discrepancy between the Republican and Democratic budgets for 2012.  Keep in mind, while your state cuts pension programs for government employees, including teachers, and slashes non-core education programs like the arts and physical education, that most state budget shortfalls are dwarfed by our defense spending.  Keep in mind, when you go to vote in 2012, that neither major political party will do anything to change that.