Eleven to One
by James Glaser
May 18, 2010

11 to 1 would be the odds in aircraft carriers if some other nation on earth wanted to attack us. According to the New York Times, the U.S. Navy has 11 of these ships, while no other nation has more then one.

It seems that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is thinking about all the money we spend on defense, and he wants to rein things in a bit. Don't worry, Gates is not even talking about cutting spending. You see, during George Bush's time in office the defense budget went up about 4% every year. That would be 32% while Bush was in office, but then we have that compound interest thing, so it is even higher than that.

Annual defense spending has nearly doubled in the last decade to $549 billion. That does not include the cost of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, which this year will add $159 billion.

So, what is Gates thinking of? Maybe only a 2 or 3 percent rise in spending every year. Let me add this, "2 or 3 percent real growth after inflation." If your boss gives you a 10 percent raise, but inflation is at 4 percent, you really aren't getting that big of a raise, but Secretary Gates is hip to that, so he will increase the military spending on top of whatever inflation comes to. Now tell me, is that fiscal responsibility or what?

Here is another way to look at this. With the $549 billion in the defense budget and the $159 cost of fighting our wars in the Middle East, we are spending 1.9 billion dollars a day to defend America. That would be 1,900 million dollar checks every day, seven days a week.

However, 11 to 1 probably isn't enough of an edge for our Pentagon. It has been reported that we already spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined, but maybe more is better. I guess Secretary of Defense Roberts Gates thinks that way. Let's be conservative and say he will only increase military spending by 2.5%. Well, even at that rate of increase, we spend an extra $17,700,000,000.00 dollars each year. Of course we have to remember that compounding of interest, and then the mark-up for inflation, but let's stay with that $17.7 billion.

Increasing the defense budget by $17.7 billion, comes out to an extra $48.5 million dollars every day of the year. That gives the Pentagon some money to play with, and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gets to say he is cutting defense spending. With his way of cutting spending, the Pentagon will have more than enough to buy another aircraft carrier. I mean, 12 to 1 has to be better doesn't it?

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