Quote:
Originally Posted by Busy Bee
From the American Civil War through the Korean War, the U.S. government has mostly paid for its conflicts through . . . war bonds. But in the post-September 11 era, U.S. military spending has been financed almost entirely through debt.
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What the H*LL does CBS think "war bonds" are if not "debt"?
I do agree with the basic point that war is expensive way beyond the operational costs while it's underway. We will be paying for our wars in terms of "tail costs" for the war fighters for decades as we have been for those who fought WW II, the Korean War and Vietnam. The budget requested by the Dept. of Veterans' Affairs alone in 2022 is $269.9 billion. Most of this goes to various compensation and medical care of the war-fighters of past wars.
The difference between spending on war and spending on infrastructure like highways is a basic one taught in most introductory economics courses. Infrastructure spending adds to productivity and war spending is pure consumption which doesn't except sometimes secondarily (as when weapons research discovers something with civilian usefulness).