When Senator Carl Levin recently suggested a tax increase to cover the war on terror (see recent RightWingGranny post), I got curious to see how much of our tax money actually goes to defense spending.  This chart is from AskHeritage.org.

The article at AskHeritage.org also points out how the cuts in military spending have impacted the modernization of our military.  It lists specific cases where cutbacks have resulted in new equipment that is needed.  At the same time…

According to WikiAnswers:

“In 2005, Senator Judd Gregg, then Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee stated that “Mandatory entitlement spending now represents a whopping 55 percent of all federal spending. If left on its current path, that could jump to more than 60 percent in 10 years. That will force us to cut out other necessary expenditures or raise taxes and weaken our economy.” Source: The Hill newspaper, Washington DC.” 

“A paper written by Congressman Randy Forbes in April of 2008, “The Challenge of Giant Entitlements”, states that “Entitlement spending, or government spending that takes place automatically every year without any action from Congress, is currently 62 percent of our overall federal spending.”” 

The United States Budget needs some serious rethinking, but I am afraid that this administration is not capable of anything other than increasing spending and raising taxes.  To claim that the war on terror is the reason for our federal deficit is disingenuous at best and dishonest at worst.