And the response to this would be what? Even more budget.
File this under: The MIC is not a conspiracy theory.
What's on the decline: The value the US taxpayer is getting per dollar spent by The MIC.
Under Obama (this is mentioned inhis 2016 State of The Union) the USA spent more than the next 10 counties combined. Most of those are allies. Gawd only knows what that stat is now. If all the spending is resulting in a decline, something is wrong.
Well it doesn't help when the traditional anti-MIC political party no longer pushes back against The MIC. Now we have hawks and hawkier. Most everyday Americans call the MIC a conspiracy theory, and have no idea its name's source was exGeneral / exPOTUS
I’m not trying to pick on you specifically but that is precisely the kind of neoliberal thinking that has caused such rot in the US (and more broadly, western) military.
Is spending a lot of money the goal or the measurement here? If your goal is actual effectiveness, then things such as force structure, results in recent conflicts, production rates, etc. are what you’d measure. If your goal is funneling money to capitalists then yeah sure budgets and adherence to “%GDP spending targets” from your vassals is what you’d measure.
Interesting cause the budget isn't declining. Where is the money being shifted to?