> According to this analysis only about $2.125 trillion of the debt is
> due to the two wars or only about 12% of the additional federal
> spending since our last surplus spending year of 2000.
But the US military-industrial complex, which the vast majority of Dems love and have consistently voted to fund, is a key pillar of US Empire. This country spends about $1 trillion per annum on war, which has two effects: (1) there's nothing left over for social programs, and (2) the identity-politics of Empire is deeply violent and brutalizing, making popular democratic mobilizations very, very difficult. Put bluntly, the Pentagon is a deformed, Rightwing socialism, a kind of demented parody of the European welfare states -- the socialism of weapons contractors and oiligarchs (just as Wall Street is financed by a kind of bailout socialism).
My acid test for any Dem: are they willing to chop the military budget in half? If not, then they are The Enemy.
-- DRR