BY: Ben Freeman & William Hartung
The Military-Industrial Complex Is Now Scarily Huge
MIC warned by Eisenhower in 1961 is still active, consuming more tax dollars and feeding larger weapons producers.
© White House/ shutterstock.com
Pentagon budget ($886B) is twice as much as in 1961, leaving less for public health, environment, and education. Lockheed Martin got $75B.
US spends more on weapons than public health, education, and renewable energy combined, with $1,087 per year per taxpayer.
Eisenhower warned in 1953 speech that every gun made, every warship launched, signifies a theft from the hungry and cold.
Today's war machine is not the same as your grandfather's. It has more money, different rationales, and advanced tools.
Major weapons firms are now fewer and larger, with just five companies controlling almost 20% of the Pentagon budget.
China is the new "pacing threat" used to justify military spending, but unlike the USSR, their challenge is economic, not military.
US military threat inflation towards China despite US military superiority in nuclear weapons, firepower and budget.
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