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From: gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg J Kuperberg)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: 7X difference on weapons??
Message-ID: <158@talcott.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 2-Dec-84 11:42:25 EST
Article-I.D.: talcott.158
Posted: Sun Dec  2 11:42:25 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 6-Dec-84 07:44:01 EST
References: <34700004@uiucuxc.UUCP>
Organization: Harvard
Lines: 41

> {..}
> 
>I noticed in yesterday's (Wednesday) WSJ that The Supreme Soviet,or Parliament
>was told that '85 arms spending will be equivalent of $22.38 billion.  As the
>Journal noted, Soviet spending on arms is believed to be about 2X that amount
>by some creative accounting.  Anyway, say they're spending about $50 billion
>on defense.

There are two possibilites:

1)  It's bullshit.  Both my World Almanac and SIPRI (Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute) say that U.S. military spending is
about 12% higher than Soviet military spending.  There are several other
factors: The U.S. GNP is twice that of the Soviet Union, there is no political
pressure from arms corporations in the U.S.S.R., and Russian soldiers work
for peanuts.

2)  The WSJ meant spending on nuclear weapons.

>The same day's Journal had an article about how the Pentagon is firm on its
>request for $333.7 billion budget for fiscal '86.  

This is definitely all military activites, not just the arms race.  It will
will also probably be trimmed to about 300 billion by Congress.  Since the
arms race is only about 10% of military spending, this comes out to 30
billion, roughly the same as Soviet spending.

>What gives? How come there is a nearly 7X difference between the two countries
>on spending?
>
> 	John Litvin
> 	ihnp4!uiucdcs!uiucuxc!litvin

Get the facts straight, man.
---
			Greg Kuperberg
		     harvard!talcott!gjk

"Madam, there is only one important question facing us, and that is the
question whether the white race will survive."  -Leonid Breshnev, speaking
to Margaret Thatcher.