what is the military price of oil use, $500B or $0

As you may know, Medicare and Social Security have dedicated taxes which have generated a SURPLUS of $4T over the last 30 years so take them out of the graphic. Then you find military spending jumps to 70% of the cost of Federal government and 70% of the US deficit and the $14T in debt run up from $900B in 1980 to $14T today with 30 years of oil war preparation and 20 years of continuous Middle East oil war.

Social Security and Medicare have not contributed anything to US deficits and debt.

The cost of oil wars. 80% of the US debt of $14T. 80% of current deficits. Oil's other big economic impact is the $500B oil trade deficit tax for the 4B barrels of oil we import. We import that oil, 50% of oil needs, because we are 50% less energy efficient than Europe, Japan on other modern economies. If we spent the $1.4T per year we spend for military for oil on making US more energy efficient we eliminate the $500B oil trade deficit tax and we eliminate $500B per year in Federal spending on military to secure oil. A 7% boost in US GDP to get US out of the Great Recession, caused, in part by the $14T wasted on military spending to secure oil.

 

How could anyone possibly argue with a statement like that?

 

I am under the impression that SS is solvent (anticipated) for another decade or two. I doubt the same can said for Medicare, but I do not know figures.

SS contributions have always gone into the general fund of congress where they were spent, but that is not the same thing as saying SS has not been taxed commesurate (sp?) with payments.

 

Medicare requires funds from General Fund but Social Security does not and is, in fact, still generating a surplus though it is a bit of an accounting trick in that the $4T that SS loaned to US government is earning "interest" as SS purchased Treasury Bonds which pay it interest.

But taken together, SS and Medicare have run a surplus to date of about $2T. So when we hear anyone say SS and Medicare need to be cut back due to the deficit and debt, it's a complete lie as they have run a surplus and will for another 10 years or so. 20 years if you just look at Social Security.

2011 Federal Budget less Social Security and Medicare
$2,038T
Defense spending $1,415T
Everything else $623B

70% of US budget. 70% of US deficit and debt.

Defense-related expenditure 2012 Budget request & Mandatory spending Calculation
DOD spending $707.5 billion Base budget + "Overseas Contingency Operations"
FBI counter-terrorism $2.7 billion
International Affairs $5.6–$63.0 billion
Energy Department, defense-related $21.8 billion
Veterans Affairs $70.0 billion
Homeland Security $46.9 billion
NASA, satellites $3.5–$8.7 billion Between 20% and 50% of NASA's total budget
Veterans pensions $54.6 billion
Other defense-related mandatory spending $8.2 billion
Interest on debt incurred in past wars $109.1–$431.5 billion Between 23% and 91% of total interest
Total Spending $1.030–$1.415 trillion

Entire focus of US military spending, has been build up for oil wars 1980-1990 and then continuous invasion and occupation of Middle East oil fields 1990-2012.

As Colin Powell pointed out, there are no military threats to US in the world today. Certainly not Russia at $100B a year or China at $150B a year, both with US allies on their borders spending as much as Russia (UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland) and China (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam). Only the VERY COSTLY $1T a year oil war operations, ongoing for 20 years.

 

Since SS has run a $4T surplus over last 30 years, no one can argue with the statement. If we say that SS has lent Medicare its general fund requirements of $100B average over last 20 years when it started to run deficits due to magical thinking of lowering taxes vs. increases to pay bills, then together the two "ENTITLEMENTS" one hears shouting about from certain political ideologues have run a collective $2T surplus over last 30 years.

During that time US debt has gone from $900B in 1980 to $14T in 2008.

Since none of this debt is from Social Security and Medicare, supported by their own dedicated payroll taxes running at $2T collective surplus, the rest of the US budget created the debt. Looking at what's left in US budget, military spending calcs out at 70% of US budget. A little lower in the oil war build up phase, 1980-1990, a bit higher in the actual oil war phase 1990-current.

 

I'd suggest the Reagan solution, increase the SS and Medicare taxes to pay for the services. This would be a CUT to SS taxes as it will run a surplus to 2025 at current pace. This would be small 1.2% increase in Medicare tax or zero if one simply applied the Medicare tax to all income, in which case a cut in payroll tax for most people.

We could let Social Security forgive the $4T it lent to the Pentagon for oil wars, reducing US debt from $15T to $11T, reducing the Interest on Debt, now 6% of total Federal budget, to 4.5%, in effect cutting Federal budget by 1.5%.

This would require increasing SS tax but again, by applying SS tax to ALL income, this would mean a slight reduction for those paying their SS tax out of payroll deductions.

A huge immediate fiscal plus for US, reduction in Federal spending, reduction in deficit, reduction in debt, SS and Medicare fully funded.

We would need to address the military spending crisis, the 70% of the Federal budget that is bankrupting the nation. Cutting Defense budget from $700B to $300B (Russia and China combined) seems practical.

 

Iraq and Afghanistan have not been paid for, in fact a tax deduction (tax cuts) was put in place to no even remotely pay for them, they were designed to be nothing but a debt builder. When you add in all the secret bases and all the other "secret" initiatives, that 70% seems very accurate, especially when you consider that a good percentage isn't even taken into account, the long term increased medical care.

 

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Bzzt. Wrong answer. Social Security is not part of the budget. It has its own specific tax base. The Federal Budget can borrow money from SS or lend money to SS but SS is NOT PART OF THE BUDGET. SS HAS NOT ADDED A DIME TO DEFICIT OR DEBT.

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Bzzt. Second wrong answer. Medicare has its own tax and is not part of the budget. Again it can lend or borrow from the Federal budget.

Answer to both is that the taxes for both SS and Medicare needs to equal the payments and automatically adjust as needed. Right now that would mean a tax cut for SS and a tax increase for Medicare.

Second answer is that SS and Medicare apply to ALL income not just payroll income. This would result in a tax cut for SS and Medicare for 99% of those with payroll deductions now (and for their employers) and would, applied at current rates, fix the 2025 deficit for SS and the small current deficit for Medicare.

SS "forgives" the $4T it is owed and US debt is reduced by 25%, US Federal budget is reduced by 1.5% (interest on the debt drops from 6% to 4.5%).

Back to the $14T in debt run up by the actual Federal budget over last 30 years for which 70% is military spending as documented up thread.

A gasoline tax dubbed the "Patriot Tax" (for all those Fox News viewers) to pay for current military costs of $1.4T and to start paying off the $14T in debt the oil wars have created over the last 30 years would be appropriate. It works out to a $7 a gallon tax on gasoline. Which, interestingly, puts US gasoline prices inline with Europe's where they are 50% more energy efficient. If US were as energy efficient as Europe, we don't need to import oil, we save the $500B per year in the oil trade deficit tax for 4B barrels of imported oil and we save the $500B cut to military budget which in turn lowers the "Patriot Tax" on gasoline.

Elegant solution.

 

Trust your feelings Padawan.

Social Security and Medicare have dedicated taxes and are not part of the general budget.

The key is SS has run a $4T surplus over last 30 years and Medicare and SS combined can be correctly be credited with a $2T surplus.

So none of the deficits over the last 30 years or the $14T in debt they created was caused by "Entitlements" (Social Security and Medicare).

Since military spending at $1.4T per year is 70% of the actual US budget of $2.48T (using 2011 budget numbers as an example) we can correctly assign 70% of the deficit and resulting $14T in debt to military spending.

Since military spending from 1980 onward was a build up to the Middle East oil war (1980-1990) and then the actual Middle East oil war (1990 to present), the deficit and debt are rooted in US military spending for the oil war.

The "Patriot Tax" on gasoline and Diesel, every red blooded and blue-blooded American will be stepping up to the pump to do their part to pay for the Oil Wars. $10 a gallon gasoline. Maybe we should call it the "Freedom Tax".

 

Not really due to the fact of separate and independent tax bases. They are prescribed entitlements not appropriations budget items.

The key, as always, is that Social Security and Medicare taxes have run a collective $2T surplus over the last 30 years and have not contributed to the deficit or $14T debt accumulated over last 30 years.

Which brings us to the topic of "Cost of Military Budget" which is 70% ($1.4T out $2.6T) of Federal budget using 2011 as example but applicable for last 30 years.

With the oil wars, 10 years of preparation and 20 years of fighting them, being the bulk of US military spending, especially in the area of VA health care costs as wars run up huge costs in human terms and these run, literally for lifetimes. We can assign the cost of US military oil wars as 70% of current US budget, 70% of US deficit and 70% of the $14T debt. Time to belly up to the bar and for oil and gas to pay back their military cost with a $7 gallon tax on oil use.

 

Chuckle...the "unified budget" was done to HIDE the fact that SS and Medicare were running surpluses while the Federal budget was running deficits. Ironically this was first done by LBJ during the Vietnam War to hide the military costs and the fact it was military and war cost that were causing deficits.

Same as now. Here's the history of the "Unified Budget" scam.

Going forward...note that 1990 was when the oil wars began and continue to this day.

So back to topic...with SS and Medicare running $2T collective surplus over last 30 years, not contributing to current deficits or the $14T current debt run up over the last 30 years of the Oil Wars era, we can clearly state that oil war military costs of $1.4T per year are the basis of US deficit and debt.

Pay up.

 

I thought this explained the "unified budget" perfectly. It was created as a legal artifice to show the Social Security and Medicare programs as part of the Federal budget, which they are not really being entitlements and having their own separate tax bases, in order to hide the deficits of the Vietnam War just as it is now used to hide the deficits and debt of the oil wars.

As it further noted in the link above, this artifice was cleared up.

Again keep your eye on the prize. The military cost of oil. Since we know that SS and Medicare have run a collective $2T surplus over the last 30 years, they have not contributed to the deficits or the $14T in debt created over the last 30 years.

With military spending at 70% of the US Federal Budget and oil wars being the bulk of US military spending for the last 30 years, the oil wars have run up $14T in debt and are $1.4T of current US Federal Budget of $2.04T (2011 budget numbers).

We have to get $14T in past costs and $1.4T per year out of oil use since this is how much it has cost and is costing in military expenses...the military cost of oil.