KyrosL -
There is a large gap between the Defense Budget and what we actually spend on defense, which was half of my point. Most of what has been spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars has been "off-budget", appropriated in "emergency" spending measures.
The other half of my point was that many economists think that we're calculating our GDP incorrectly, since products that are manufactured overseas are being included as part of our domestic product. Apple computers and iPods are one example. Made overseas, imported and sold here, and counted as domestic product because Apple is an American company.
If you calculate our GDP based on only products manufactured here, it's much lower. If you look at actual defense spending, vs. what's in the budget, it's much higher. Either way, defense spending is more than 4% of GDP.
And if you calculate both real defense spending and real GDP as I've just suggested, it's a lot more than 4%.
At a minimum, even if one doesn't want to recalculate real GDP, one should really look at actual defense spending and not just the budget. Thus, I think it's misleading when people keep saying that our Defense Budget is only 4% of GDP.
- Allen |
