Fred J. McCall wrote:
"John P. Mullen" wrote:

wrote:
:
: Fred J. McCall wrote:
:
:Yes, but he does have a war on. That tends to wreck any budget. Too
:large a percentage of the budget is non-discretionary spending.
:
: The budget deficit is three times the size of the war budget.
:
: Even then most of the war budget is being spent in Iraq, where
: he chose to go to war despite Iraqi compliance with the inspection
: and disarmament program.
:
:Most of the war expenditures are off budget.

Pardon? How's that work again?

:There are also costs associated with the military and the war that are
:not clearly identified in the budget.

For some definition of 'clearly identified'.

:In addition, a lot of the war cost is being borne by the states.

Enumerate them.

Actually there are several different kinds of costs.

true "off budget" costs are those which are externalized to the economy
in general. for example deficit spending increases the borrowing costs
for everyone, but the costs are "off budget"

Then there are "deferred costs" cost which don't show up in this years
budget e.g. costs of veterans benefits.

then there is the "using up" of military assets. Since the US is a
cash, not an accrual budget, you can "spend out of capital" without it
appearing on the budget.

Economists differ on how large these cost are for the Iraq war but they
are very large.

Vince