Jany Huynh Huynh 1

10/25/2007

Period 5

Spending on National Security

Ever since the United States entered the stage of war in 2001, the spending on defense

has increased to an average rate of 8% a year. Judd Gregg, the Senate Budget Committee

Chairman, states that most of that money barely even has anything to do with the war in Iraq or

Afghanistan (usatoday). Other programs’ national funding has declined and is declining due to

the process of war and excessive spending on national security. National security is an important

factor in a citizen’s life, but to be safe at the cost of other programs, such as education, is

something we need to reconsider while our future generations are currently attending school

seeking a better education.

In the early administration of Bush, the K-12 education did increase greatest to an

average of 7% annually. However, not sticking to his words to the No Child Left Behind law, the

white house has declined the spending on K-12 education every year after that (usatoday). If our

country can’t stably fund a mere K-12 program, how are we to take care of the rest of the

education programs for our future generations? Theses taken benefits on the cost of education

will surely creep to us as consequences in the later future.

The highest level of the nation’s unemployment during Bush’s presidency was in 2003,

with the rate of 6.3% (usatoday). Such a recession hurts the nation even more for the anti-

poverty spending increase in addition of national spending. The spending on food stamps has

risen to 84% and Medicaid to 49%. Our new spending on Medicare to include drug benefits will
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cause our nation about $797 billion in the next 10 years (usatoday). With such an increase on our

already tight budget, our spending on common programs such as education or homeless shelters

continues to decline.

The rise of national federal spending has been an important issue concerning the decline

of other programs. Although many of these increased funding on national security has been for a

safer, healthier environment, the impact on the programs’ benefits that were taken away has not

been considered. The federal government spending was approximately $20 billion annually on

homeland security, and then soared to $50 billion after the September 11 accident (usatoday). If

funding of national security keeps expanding at this rate, we will soon loose most of our funding

and benefits for other programs and our common life benefits will decline.
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Bibliography

How federal spending has climbed since 2001. 4/3/2006.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-04-08-federal-spending-inside_x.htm# .
10/17/2007.