Essay on Military Budget of the United States and Defense Spending Levels

Submitted By a6194695
Words: 557
Pages: 3
Open Document
I. THE PROBLEM
It is believed that defense contractors follow a labor retention policy and that such hoarding is due to cost-based government contracts. These beliefs arise from the frequent observation that the cancellation of weapons projects leads to employment reductions but usually by much less than the numbers involved on the project. For example, in 1965, a number of British military aircraft were cancelled. At the time, it was estimated that employment on the projects was about 30 000 and that cancellation would immediately resulting 25 000 redundancies and the closing of five major plants. In fact, one year later the number of redundancies due to the cancellations was about 7000-8000, and only one plant was closed. The major firms responded in a variety of ways. Work was withdrawn from sub-contractors; new defense contracts were obtained and natural wastage increased. Such responses suggest that prior to cancellation the number of redundancies is generally over estimated and that some labor is re-allocated to other work. The redundancy figures could also be deliberate exaggerations, probably reflecting an attempt by producer interests to influence the decisions of vote-maximizing governments.
Military expenditures have long played an important role in the American political economy, if for no other reason than that they are by a wide margin the largest category of discretionary federal spending. Because of the size and relative controllability of the defense budget, suspicion lingers that it is used for political and economic purposes unrelated to national security. One possibility is that defense spending is used counter cyclically to mitigate the effects of recessions and spur economic recovery. Another is that defense spending is used as an explicitly electoral tool, with spending levels rising just before elections to stimulate the economy and improve incumbents’ Election Day prospects.

That defense budgets are sure to shrink in the 1990s makes the question more important. The impending budget squeeze is a consequence of the virtual disappearance of the Soviet– Warsaw Pact military threat in Europe, and the tantalizing prospect of friendly superpower relations. . It therefore becomes that much more important to understand the domestic political and economic factors which drive military spending. Previous research into these questions has attempted to tie changes in the
Show More

Related Documents: Essay on Military Budget of the United States and Defense Spending Levels

millitary budget oratory Essay

back. The security service says if you do that, some guards could lose their jobs. It needs you to keep spending what you have so they can stay employed. is this a good argument for you to keep paying what you always have? Of course not. Yet that’s the case being made by politicians across the nation about defense spending and sequestration. We as a nation need to realize that military spending and power is not needed nearly as much these days and should be cut and transferred for the better of…

Words 1405 - Pages 6

Mandatory Spending Vs Government Budget

Communist, Monarchy, or Dictatorship has a budgeting or spending plan implemented to fund and run the government set up. This is true for the United States and United Kingdom where one is solely Democracy and the other is a Monarchy. These two super power countries generate revenue for spending yearly, but when taking a closer look at records it shows that each country spends a different amount in different aspects of their government. A budget is set up to forecast a Governments expenditures and revenues…

Words 1208 - Pages 5

Cold War DBQ

At the conclusion of the Second World War two superpowers emerged, the United States of America and the Soviet Union. As the century progressed, tensions between the two nations drastically amounted. By the time Dwight D. Eisenhower became the President, the US and USSR had fully become entrenched in the Cold War. This hostility infested itself into trepidations of the everyday American. After World War II, the American public’s fears of being able to maintain a prosperous economy, supporting democracy…

Words 934 - Pages 4

Sputnik's Race To Space

the Soviet Union’s artificial satellite, Sputnik I – the first of the Sputnik satellites. The Cold War can be explained as political and military tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. It started after World War II as arguments arose between the two nations. The United States was concerned that the Soviets would use the technology for military purposes. Americans soon became fearful when the Soviets capabilities to launch nuclear weapons surfaced. While Sputnik came as a surprise…

Words 612 - Pages 3

Budget deficit Essay

occurrence of a rising budget deficit as a result of a weaker economy and an interruption of a government spending on priority areas such as health, education, transport and defense. Kohut (2012) stated that the budget deficit stands out as one of the fastest growing priorities for Americans, rising 16 percentage points since 2007 and ranking third with 69 percentages. However, the findings of the most recent survey that is conducted by the Pew Research Center confirm that the budget deficit has slipped…

Words 1156 - Pages 5

Essay about Feb 2013Lesson 14Systems Acquisition Management Organizations

Categories Organizations Involved in Defense Acquisition • • • The Executive Branch The Congress Industry There are three primary organizations that influence the defense acquisition community: the Executive Branch, Congress, and industry. Each participant plays a significant role in the acquisition process. The Executive Branch The Executive Branch includes the President, the Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Department of State, and the National Security Council…

Words 1706 - Pages 7

Conscription in the United States and New York Times Essay

com/1988/05/15/us/cost-of-reviving-draft-put-at-1-billion-a-year.html Cost of Reviving Draft Put at $1 Billion a Year By RICHARD HALLORAN, Special to the New York Times Published: May 15, 1988 A consulting company advising the Defense Department has concluded that it would cost the United States more than $1 billion a year to return to military conscription while maintaining a force as qualified and effective as that of today. The consultants, Syllogistics, whose headquarters are in Virginia, said the cost of training soldiers and sailors…

Words 390 - Pages 2

General Eisenhower Research Paper

He was famous for planning two of the most consequential military campaigns of World War II: Operation Torch in the North Africa campaign in 1942 to 1943 and the invasion of Normandy in 1944. He was A good General Because he Had Leadership Skills, Good Strategies, and Adaptability. General Eisenhower was a good general because he had good leadership skills. In the Article “Dwight Eisenhower: Lessons from the ‘balancer in chief’” it states that”That America and its economy pulled through was remarkable…

Words 439 - Pages 2

Cold War Pros And Cons

simply represent a milestone in rash defense spending; they are the last moments of a now antiquated attitude toward US R&D funding. With the conclusion of the Cold War in the late 80’s and early 90’s came a rescripting of R&D funding norms…

Words 1027 - Pages 5

Monetary Policy and Federal Reserve Essay

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP): the total value of goods and services produced within a country MONETARY SPENDING KEYNESIANS: followers of the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, who argued that the government can stimulate the economy by increasing public spending or by cutting taxes After WWII, Keynesian ideas guided economic policy making across the industrialized world. Uses spending and tax policy to promote growth and low unemployment, dominated economic policy during the ‘60s and the…

Words 2321 - Pages 10