In 2000, we spent 3.7% of GDP on the military. The Pentagon didn’t have to hold bake sales. We’re now spending 5.4%. Merely going back to 2000 would save 1.7% of GDP, or $255 billion. If over the next decade we spent 3.7% of GDP instead of 5.4%, we’d save $3.6 trillion. That’s close to what many of the deficit hawks are aiming for. Let the Bush tax cuts expire and bump up the top rate a few points and everyone could have free child care and free college tuition!
Of course to do that would be unAmerican.
Paul Krugman will propose the same idea next week
By: Charles on August 4, 2011
at 4:15 pm
I have an even better idea, Doug…how about we go further and reduce defense to the pre-Reagan era AND restore the pre-Reagan progressive tax levels…AND mix in financial transaction and carbon/fossil fuels taxes??
We could then have single payer health care, an fully upgraded infrastructure, AND still have room for universal child care and free college tuition!!
Go big or go home, I always say.
Anthony
By: Anthony Kennerson on August 4, 2011
at 5:35 pm
Doug, that’s soooooo pre-9/11 of you!
By: Corey Robin on August 5, 2011
at 12:17 am
[...] Of course to do that would be unAmerican. – Doug Henwood, “Wild Budget Math,” LBO News [...]
By: Obama Kills Off New Deal, Great Society, Economy, All Hope, Then Celebrates with a Burger | chtodelat news on August 5, 2011
at 3:34 am
But Doug, Obama has a jobs program… I read it this morning: “Obama to push tax credits for hiring veterans”. You see, the more war spending, the more wars; the more wars, the more veterans; the more veterans, the more tax-cut-incentivized jobs for Americans. You just don’t understand eleventy-seven-dimensional chess, do you?
By: Stephen on August 5, 2011
at 8:54 am
[...] to get a sense of what could be possible, consider this from Doug Henwood of Left Business Observer: In 2000, we spent 3.7 percent of GDP on the military. [...]
By: FAIR Blog » Blog Archive » 'Hard Choices' and the Budget Cuts Left Off the Table on August 9, 2011
at 2:12 pm