President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on Sept. 25 that the first U.S.-made Abrams tanks had arrived in Ukraine, without mentioning how many of the 31 tanks pledged had been delivered.
We’ve spent Trillions to counter Russia overvthe decades.
To support Ukraine in a proxy war that weakens, destabilizes or destroys Russia where no American soldiers die and we get to test out our arsenal in a real world scenario is a worthwhile investment not to mention the moral and humanitarian aspect.
Do we have problems at home? Yes but that’s never been a good enough reason to reduce military spending.
I do think the military budget is out of control and more money should be appropriated to the issues that matter like healthcare but at this moment in time we should absolutely continue to support Ukraine.
We are the world leaders and other countries follow. We can’t let our support erode. We can’t let Russia win this one.
I mean, there would be easily enough money to both have the best military and the best public healthcare system in the world. The key is to tax the rich 0.1% properly.
But they are the world leaders because they take the initiative. Saying this as a European, the EU grew way too complacent in matters of defence and relies way too heavily on the US for safety.
It's something we can change, but don't be surprised if the US fills that vacuum in the meantime.
Your problem isn't even that the military budget is out of control (alhough accounting could be better), but a lot of this budget is only "military" by designation used to keep US jobs.
But "We spend much on our strong military" is much better politically than "We have to spend much to subsidize industrial jobs". And they can even recoup some of the costs by exports then.
If you are actually looking for problems... look at the industrial part, not the military part of the US' MIC.
For over 20 years these tanks have been bought and paid for. Don’t let anyone tell you different. We have so many god damned weapon system in storage that we can supply Ukraine with arms indefinitely. Those who say we in the west are spending too much money are full of shit.