dlo@drutx.UUCP (OlsonDL) (11/21/85)
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Tim, I went to the library last evening, and looked up the _Budget_Of_The_
_U.S._Government_. This library had the volumes for the last 10 fiscal
years. In case you never cracked one, each contains actual federal receipts
and expenditures for just about everything for the previous 10 years or
so, and some estimates for the next couple of years or so.
Year 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985
Individual Income Tax
(in $billions) 244.1 285.9 297.7 288.9 296.2 329.7(est.)
Again, what's this about cuts in federal income taxes? Even inflation does
not account for this. Granted, there is a drop in them between '82 - '83,
but they have fluctuated throughout the 20 years or so that these volumes
record.
Now, let's look at some expenditures.
(in $billions)
Year 1964 1984
Defense 52.7 227.4 [+431%]
Non-defense 65.8 624.4 [+949%]
Interest on Debt 8.2 111.1 (included in non-defense) [+1355%]
Think inflation accounts for this? Let's look.
(constant 1972 dollars in $billions)
Year 1964 1984
Defense 78.8 90.0 [+14.2] (Increase? yes. Massive? no)
Non-defense 98.6 276.2 [+280%] (Massive increase)
Interest on Debt 16.8 49.2 [+293%] (Massive increase)
It appears to me that the vast majority of the interest on the debt is
due to non-defense.
Now, lets look at defense.
In article: <824@whuxl.UUCP> orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER) writes:
> 4)In the last five years we have spent over a trillion (yes, *trillion*!)
> dollars on preparing for War. Hundreds of billions of that money
> has been for development of still more nuclear weapons.
Indeed, defense spending over the last 5 years has been over $1 trillion.
(about $1.033 trillion). But, the amount of money spent over that same
period to develop, test, and produce nuclear weapons totals about $25.9
billion. Lot of money, but hardly "hundreds of billions".
I realize that *exploded* nukes can do enormous damage. But, the money
spent on them damaging the U.S. economy? Hardly.
> tim sevener whuxn!orb
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.
David Olson
..!ihnp4!drutx!dlo