Who Says Bipartisanship Is Dead? Not The Pentagon

Boom! There goes another trillion!

With all the partisan rancor in Washington, it’s easy to overlook one area where the two major parties consistently agree: defense spending. When it comes to tossing tax dollars into the black maw of the Pentagon, Democrats and Republicans get along just fine. Forget the furor over bailouts and bonuses. The Military-Industrial Complex has been enjoying the fruits of a sixty year stimulus plan by now and neither party shows any sign of stopping the fun.

From Reason.com (emphasis added):

Just to repeat that last quote so all those on the antiwar left can hear it over the chants and the protest drums. President Obama, whom you all voted for in overwhelming numbers, is actually going to spend more on weapons of war than George W. Bush.

Of course, the author of the Reason article doesn’t point out that a lot of that increased spending is really just better, or at least more honest, bookkeeping. Bush conveniently pretended like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t part of the Pentagon’s budget, funding them with so-called “emergency supplemental” spending bills. So at least now, we’ll have to admit how much money we’re shelling out for those conflicts. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to spend any less on them.

Just how out of whack is our so-called “defense” spending? The Reason piece gives a nice bit of perspective:

Long live the World Boss.