“Our national debt is our biggest national security threat" - Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff.
America's highest-ranking military official thinks the U.S. has bigger security problems than al-Qaeda, suicide bombers and an increasingly deadly nine-year war.
"Our national debt is our biggest national security threat," said Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a "Tribute to the Troops" breakfast sponsored by The Hill on Thursday morning, according to two staffers at the gathering.
He also noted a troubling trend -- that veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq are becoming homeless at four times the rate the country witnessed in the wake of Vietnam.
Read the full article at; Adm. Mike Mullen: 'National Debt Is Our Biggest Security Threat' and / or Defense Officials Anticipate Drop In Military Spending
Here are some interesting facts;
- The US defense budget is about 700 Billion USD in 2009.
- The Chinese defense budget was about 70 Billion USD in 2009. (See China military build-up seems U.S.-focused: Mullen).
- Admiral Mullen Mentioned that by 2012 the USA will have to pay an estimated 600 Billion* USD in interest payments alone.
Given these numbers China might soon be able to finance the majority of the Chinese military from US interest payments alone - assuming current exchange rates-.
The 600 billion mentioned in this article are an estimate of the official US debt at current interest rates (~13.5 Trillion Debt * ~4.5% (avg. interest) = 600 billion).
Those numbers ignore the off-balance sheet unfunded liabilities (40+trillions) and assume that interest rates will stay at their very low current rates. Given these two factors the 600 billion interest payments is a optimistic short term number.
The above raises an interesting question:
How would the USA pay for future higher interest rates when unfunded liabilities will start becoming due in earnest ?
by G. Gregersen