Systematically Misrepresenting our Military Spending?

Is the Romney campaign systematically misrepresenting our military spending?  It sure looks like it. A few days ago Dana Milbank pointed out Romney's mendacity about looming cuts in the defense budget. These cuts have nothing to do with Obama, as they were decided by congressional members of both parties. But this did not stop Romney from representing Obama as a military-budget-cutting pinko.

Then Sarah Kliff (on Ezra Klein's blog) discussed Romney's recent words about our federal spending on the military versus health care, and there is more misinformation. Romney said that we spend 18% of GDP on health care and %4 on the military. This is, at best, a confused mess of a statement. First of all, we do not spend 18% of GDP on health care. That is closer to the percentage of the federal budget which goes to this source. (See here.) 4% of GDP on the military is more accurate. However, by stating it this way Romney gives the impression that we spend almost five times the amount on health care that we do on the military, whereas the real figures are just about even. If one wishes to add private spending to the total that we spend on heath care, that would help Romney's case, but he would still be wrong.

So what is going on here? Romney wants us to save money on health care by cutting that part of the federal budget. To try to get people on his side, he inflates the numbers on health care spending (pretending that it is a percentage of GDP) while trying to make military spending look small by comparison. Meanwhile, he is trying to make Obama look ridiculous, as if Obama is going after small government expenses and ignoring a much greater area of spending.

The truth of the matter is, the US government spends about twice as much of its GDP on defense than the world average, and about as much as it does on health care. If we were to bring the military budget down to a reasonable level, we could easily afford our health care spending. Add to that the revenue likely to come from an end to the Bush-era tax cuts, and the problems disappear. Obviously there are savings to be made in health care spending, but there is no reason to do so by simply cutting benefits (like the Ryan plan intends to do). Rather, more, not less government intervention is needed to rein in the industry. Ironically, Romney effectively admitted as much in his words quoted in the Kliff post, because he praises the Israeli plan, which does just that.

Military spending is the gift that keeps on giving to the American right-wing. It adds to the deficit, giving an excuse to cut other hated programs. It makes its proponents look patriotic. And finally, it enriches weapons manufacturers and other military contractors. Unfortunately, as the Romney campaign is counting on, we keep falling for it.