"
Over the past decade, however,
another branch of government has emerged, and it dwarfs the other
three. It’s powerful, skirts our laws, and composed of three core
entities: the military; the Department of Homeland Security, which
encompasses airport security, and 15 intelligence services (National
Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, etc.). All exist to
protect America and its citizens from enemies — both real and imagined.
We might call it the paranoid branch.
Our post-9/11 paranoia doesn’t
come cheaply, though. We Americans spend nearly a quarter of every
dollar we generate as a nation on the military ($682 billion), Homeland
Security (about $60 billion), and 15 intelligence agencies (combined
perhaps $75 billion). While our government raced through some $3.67
trillion in 2013 it took in only $2.77 trillion in revenue, which means
it has to borrow about $900 billion just to stay afloat.
Of the money the United States
raises from its citizens, more than $1.7 trillion is spent on salving
our collective paranoia or borrowed from banks and nations. That’s 40+
percent of the total."
I have nothing to add to this article. Well said.
1 comment:
Interesting. I would not call it the "paranoid branch". I would call it the progressive democratic branch.
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