I very much appreciate your reporting but when reporting spending on the military would it not be appropriate to also include the legacy costs of our past wars, I.e. spending on veterans care and benefits? That would easily push our annual military spending well past the $1 trillion mark. In addition to this, one might also want to include the additional costs of interest on the debt, since much (if not all) of our annual deficit spending is due to our bloated military spending.
All good points. For this note on policy decisions, I used discretionary spending to communicate the amounts lawmakers and the president actually see in annual legislation that they choose to either support or oppose.
I very much appreciate your reporting but when reporting spending on the military would it not be appropriate to also include the legacy costs of our past wars, I.e. spending on veterans care and benefits? That would easily push our annual military spending well past the $1 trillion mark. In addition to this, one might also want to include the additional costs of interest on the debt, since much (if not all) of our annual deficit spending is due to our bloated military spending.
All good points. For this note on policy decisions, I used discretionary spending to communicate the amounts lawmakers and the president actually see in annual legislation that they choose to either support or oppose.