I am looking at some data on military spending. The War Resister's League (WRL) and the Center for Defense Information (CDI) both put out estimates of military spending. The WRL includes dod, part of doe, international security, and 1/2 of NASA in what they call current military spending. They also include veterans benefits and 80% of the total interest on the national debt in a category they call past military spending. They compare this to Total Federal Outlays minus what they call the trust funds which is money collected primarily for social security and medicare. CDI makes their defense spending calculation in a similar manner execpt they appear to use 50% of the net interest payments rather than 80% of total interest payments. They then look at military spending as a portion of discretionary spending. First question: The 50% v. 80% is no big deal from a methodological perspective. However, using the total interest v. net interest is important. It seems to me that CDI is correct in using net interest since much of the interest the Federal Gov't actually pays is to Federal agencies. Isn't the relevant interest on the national debt the net interest paid on the privately held debt? Second question: If you are going to compare defense spending to discretionary spending shouldn't you exclude the net interest payments since they are a form of mandatory spending? It also seems to me that you should exclude that portion of veterans benefits that are mandatory spending. Third question: I think that the WRL's rationale for excluding social security and medicare spending paid for by premiums and payroll taxes from total outlays is that this money has been designated for use by law for these programs. These programs used to be off budget but were added to the so called unified federal budget during the Johnson Administration to make military spending look like it is a smaller part of the budget. Does this make sense? I have been on vacation and have reactivated my subscription to pen-l but in case there is a problem could you please cc me a private copy of any response. Thanks Rudy
