Freedom Is Not Free
One picture worth a thousand words is a graph on the U.S. Department of Defense website showing U.S. annual Defense spending as a percentage of GDP, going back to 1953.
Two things jump out.
First, the lowest over the 70-year period was in 1999, at the end of the Clinton administration, when it stood at 2.7%. This is a little more than half the previous low, which stood at 4.5% 20 years earlier, in 1979.
A little over year after this historic low point in defense spending, our nation experienced the worst attack on its homeland in its history on Sept. 11, 2001.
The second thing I notice is that the forecast for 2024 shows that Defense spending as a percentage of GDP will be 2.7%, matching the 1999 low point.
However, the 2.7% in 2024 implies a far lower national priority for Defense spending than the 2.7% in 1999, because in 1999, overall federal spending as a percent of GDP stood at 17.7% compared to 23.4% in 2024, according to the CBO forecast.
So as a percent of the federal budget, in 1999 Defense spending stood at 15.3% compared to 11.5% in 2024.
The 2024 Index of Military Strength published by the Heritage Foundation rates the state of military power by branches of service from "very weak" to "very strong."
The results: Army, "marginal"; Navy, "weak"; Air Force, "very weak"; Marine Corps, "strong."
The report summarizes saying "In the aggregate, the United States' military posture must be rated as 'weak.' ... As currently postured, the U.S. military is at significant risk of not being able to defend America's vital national interests with assurance."
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