Tag / Military

by Hoosier Econ

Lots of Erections at the Pentagon

smiling bob

The unfortunate part of government spending is taxpayers don’t get to know what is being spent until it gets spent. CBS News uncovered some “dysfunctional” spending from the pentagon in a recent report:

According to the Military Times, data from the Defense Health Agency indicate the U.S. Department of Defense spent $41.6 million on Viagra and $84.24 million total on drugs for erectile dysfunction in 2014.

Since 2011, the bill for covering drugs like Viagra, Cialis and Levitra for active and retired military personnel and eligible family members totalled $294 million — nearly as much as four U.S. Air Force F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, says the Military Times.

The DoD first began covering the cost of Viagra prescriptions in 2012, and currently another seven types of erectile dysfunction medications are paid for under the federal agency’s health plan. Of the 1.18 million prescriptions filled in 2014, 905,083 were for Viagra, at a cost of $41.6 million. Cialis was the second most commonly prescribed ED drug, with 185,841 prescriptions totaling $22.82 million. Revatio, the priciest ED drug, was prescribed the least with 1,699 prescriptions in 2014 for a total cost of $2.24 million.

You can read the rest of the article here.

by Hoosier Econ

How Federal Tax Dollars Were Spent in 2014

The Tax Foundation put together a chart showing how federal tax dollars were spent.
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Compare that to 1962 federal spending
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by Hoosier Econ

How Much Does it Cost to Operate Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo Bay houses terrorists captured around the world by the United States military and other intelligence agencies. In 2014 it cost American taxpayers $397 Million.

by Hoosier Econ

Countries That Sold Military Weapons To Saddam Hussein

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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute investigated what countries sold Iraq weapons while Saddam Hussein was dictator. Their research debunks the long held belief that the United States was the sole seller of military arms.

Share per nation of sale of weapons to Iraq from 1973 through 2002.

USSR/Russia 57%
France 13%
China 12%
Czech 7%
Poland 4%
Brazil 2%

America is tied with Egypt, Romania, Denmark and Libya at 1%.

by Hoosier Econ

US Troops Fighting Ebola Getting $400 Extra Per Month

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Mark this story up as insane.
The President of the United States has gave the command to put US Troops in harms way combating Ebola in Liberia. A total of 4,000 will end up there. Here is what they will receive for their efforts via the Military Times:

U.S. troops deploying to West Africa for the Ebola mission could earn up to $400 a month in special pays, according to Defense Department officials. One would be hardship duty pay-location of $150 a month for those troops in Liberia and Sierra Leone. This entitlement is retroactive to the day of arrival after 30 days in theater. The second would be family separation allowance (for members with dependents) of $250 a month. This entitlement is retroactive to the day of arrival after 30 days in theater.

by Hoosier Econ

Cost of One Tomahawk Cruise Missile

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In the past few weeks the United States military launched action against ISIS in the middle east. Part of the strategy in killing the Jihadist group was launching Tomahawk cruise missiles on them. The fully burdened cost of a new Tomahawk cruise missile is roughly $1.6 million.

by Hoosier Econ

U.S. Military Veteran Tells of How Bad Communism Is

The other day I was engaged in some conversation with a man about the social affects of what Communism brought to countries. We started discussing the old Soviet Union. In short, Soviet Union historically engaged in disinformation. One example was the government told Russian’s that America would stage “traffic jams” or “large gatherings” if saw the events on tv. He decided to share this story with me of what he experienced in dealing with people from the old Soviet Union. I am paraphrasing the story.

I was stationed in North Carolina in 1975. The U.S. decided to bring over some Russian troops to train with us for a short time. One weekend we had some down time so my Colonel decided we should take the Russian guys out to party. We took them to a dance hall and partied for a little bit. The Russians came up to us and stated we had staged the scene and it was all propaganda. My Colonel took the guys outside to his car, reached into his glove box and slammed a map of North Carolina on his car hood. He demanded that the Russians point to any city on the map and he will take them there and show that many other bars exist with people gathering. The Russians chose a city hundreds of miles away. So we started that way and stopping at several bars along the way. The Russians were completely blown away in what they saw and they also got pretty drunk.