Ugh! Just another trillion dollar Band-aid. The total expenditure for the 2014 budget was $3.5 trillion, so a budget will still be in order. Heres a few other things worth mentioning: -The budget for the Department of Defense (DoD) is $526.6 billion. -The U.S. DoD is the largest employer in the world (3.2 million). -DoD spending in 2010 was 4.8% of GDP and accounted for approximately 45% of budgeted global military spending – more than the next 17 largest militaries combined. -The DoD has a history of gross overspending. For example, the 2010 DoD budget was $533.7 billion with another $205.5 tacked on for adjustments and contingencies. They took all of that and another $460.8 billion. After over a decade of non-compliance, Congress has established a deadline of Fiscal year 2017 for the DoD to achieve audit readiness. -The DoD was the largest single consumer of energy in the United States in 2006. -In 2006, the Department used almost 30,000 gigawatt hours (GWH) of electricity, at a cost of almost $2.2 billion. The Departments electricity use would supply enough electricity to power more than 2.6 million average American homes. In electricity consumption, if it were a country, the Department would rank 58th in the world, using slightly less than Denmark and slightly more than Syria (CIA World Factbook, 2006). -The DoD uses 4,600,000,000 US gallons of fuel annually, an average of 12,600,000 US gallons of fuel per day. A large Army division may use about 6,000 US gallons per day. According to the 2005 CIA World Factbook, if it were a country, the DoD would rank 34th in the world in average daily oil use, coming in just behind Iraq and just ahead of Sweden. -Veterans Affairs is not part of the Department of Defense, and its 2014 budget was $63.5 billion.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 09:58:03 +0000