Fiscal Insanity: Spending 50 Percent Of Budget on Military

To the Editor:
A recent letter to the Herald, “United States Fiscal Insanity,” would lead us to believe that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are the culprits of the coming financial disaster for the U.S. The same letter states our military budget is 20 percent and our human resources budget (Social Security, etc.) is over 50 percent.
The government began, in the 1960s, during the Vietnam War combining trust funds (Social Security, Medicare, etc. taxes) and federal funds (income taxes). This presentation makes the human needs portion of the budget larger and the military portion smaller. If we use the federal funds only and do not include trust funds such as Social Security, that are raised and spent separately from income taxes, we learn where our taxes really go.
The total federal budget for 2011 is $2,945 billion; of this $876 billion is for current military expenses. Last week Congress approved a $33 billion supplement for the Afghanistan War. This is not in the 2011 budget. In addition, if we add $522 billion for past military debts: veteran’s benefits, and interest on our national debt created by past military spending, we come to $1,398 billion as the military portion of the 2011 budget. This is 48 percent.
The portion of the 2011 budget for human resources (the administration of Social Security, the Department of Education, Health and Human Services, Urban Development, etc.) is $1,134 billion. The Human Resources portion of the 2011 budget is 38 percent.
Why does our government present misleading information? Why does our government want us to believe that the military portion of the budget is 20 percent and the human resources portion of the budget is more than 50 percent? Spending 50 percent of our budget on the military is United States financial insanity. The demise of the U.S.S.R. was brought about when it ran out of money. The U.S.S.R. like the U.S. spent the greatest part of its income on the military. Are we going down the same road?
ED POWICK
Cape May