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MilitaryDefense Spending
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EmploymentCrossing.com Despite America fighting wars on two fronts, military officials are considering reining in defense spending, as a result of the current economic meltdown. In fiscal 2008, the United States spent $694.2 billion on defense, up from $292 billion in 2000. The 2008 total includes $514.2 billion in the defense budget, and another $180 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which have been financed through so-called supplemental budgets. Congress' decision earlier this month to approve a $700-billion bailout for the financial industry adds to the strain on the federal budget, and the stock market decline and the credit crunch could slow economic activity and eliminate jobs, which in turn could reduce tax revenues. In addition, eight years of borrowing to pay for the wars, coupled with an aging baby boomer population, growing health care costs and a push to enlarge the U.S. Army, could force tough decisions about which needs should take priority, and the next president to reassess how much the military can do. "How the U.S. government funds its military answers the question of how committed it is to fighting these kinds of wars," James Quinlivan, a senior military analyst and mathematician at the RAND Corporation, told the Detroit Free Press.
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