by Ivan Eland

Independent Institute

12/27/04

Since the September 11 attacks, real (inflation-adjusted) spending on defense has increased 23 percent, even when the whopping $250 billion bill for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is not included in the count. Even without those supplemental expenditures, the U.S. budget for national defense is an eye-popping $421 billion for fiscal year 2005, according to Chris Hellman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation. Many taxpayers assume that the ballooning budgets mean greater security, but the facts tell a different story...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1444


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp