An article on page A11 of this morning’s WSJ mentioned that the Marine Corps reports that 70% of its F/a-18 jets are not flight worthy due to inadequate maintenance.
This reminded me of Robert Gates testimony in Congress just before he retired as Secretary of Defense in 2011; he said that the Pentagon was being “destroyed” (he may have used another similar but different dramatic adjective) by the cost of veterans benefits and asked that they be removed from the defense budget.
The US federal budget overall has evolved into a support system for individuals (social security, Medicare/Medicaid, food stamps, etc.) In fact, direct payments to individuals, including salaries, are now 70% of the budget.
:
Veterans’ benefits are $160.6 billion/year, or 4% of the total spending, while other military spending is 16%, meaning the VA is now 20% of total military spending. Disability benefits for veterans were about $20 billion per year in 2000 AD and now are about $60 billion per year. These rising costs are squeezing the other portions of the defense budget.
PS: Another worrisome category is “interest on debt,” which is now 6%. Were the average cost of federal debt to rise to 4%, this would be 20%.
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