.
There
are good wars and there are bad wars but there are no cheap wars.
Year
to year defense costs have been costly but affordable, however, the
long term costs snowball into huge personnel obligations in what are
called the “out years” by bean counters.
A
few examples:
Military
heath care, including retirees, cost $50 billion dollars in 2012.
Military
retiree payments were $52 billion in 2012 and are expected to rise to
$59 billion by 2022.
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22897.pdf
After
war personal support costs are also in an upward spiral. The Veterans
Administration (VA) was $66.5 billion in 2002 and by 2012 it was
$125.3 billion.
If
we stopped enlisting another soldier or stopped buying another rifle,
ship or plane we have a lifetime obligation for past service of over
$200 billion per year.
Paul
Hunter budhunter@frontier.com
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