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The total budget for the Department of Defense and Homeland Security in fiscal year 2008 alone was almost $800 billion.

However, according to Wikipedia, "Much of the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have not been funded through regular appropriations bills, but through emergency supplemental appropriations bills. Some budget experts argue that emergency supplemental appropriations bills do not receive the same level of legislative care as regular appropriations bills. In addition, emergency supplemental appropriations are not subject to the same budget enforcement mechanisms imposed on regular appropriations. Funding for the first stages of the Vietnam War was provided by supplemental appropriations, although President Johnson eventually acceded to Congressional demands to fund that war through the regular appropriations process."

Therefore, the total cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan (which is almost $900 billion since 2001 as reported by the National Priorities Project), isn't included in the budgets for the Department of Defense or Homeland Security:

http://costofwar.com/

Perhaps a valid question is this: What do we do when we simply can not sustain the level of defense spending that is required to preserve our status as the dominant military force in the world? Do we simply stop paying for Medicare, Social Security, and a host of other mandatory (or discretionary) budget obligations?

As further explained by Wikipedia: "Some politicians and economists have argued that the U.S. can 'grow its way' out of these fiscal challenges. Their argument is that economic growth (driven by tax cuts, productivity improvements, and borrowing) will generate sufficient tax revenue to offset growing entitlement spending. However, the GAO has estimated that double-digit GDP growth would be required for the next 75 years to do so; GDP growth averaged 3.2% during the 1990s. Because mandatory spending growth rates will far exceed any reasonable growth rate in GDP and the tax base, the GAO concluded that the U.S. cannot grow its way out of the problem...."

No matter what, it looks like there will be nothing but world conflict and financial chaos on the horizon for as far into the future as we can see.

I guess we just sit back and wait for things to change for the better....

- Ed Smith, Publisher
The EHS Letter Manual