Demagogue

The proposed Bush budget calls for spending $419 billion on defense in the next fiscal year, which begins in October. That's up almost 5% from this year and it's a 41% jump from Bush's pre-9/11 budget request for 2001. (And, lest we forget, this does not include an additional funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan -- a request that Bush will soon deliver to Congress.)

According to budget analyst Steven Kosiak, U.S. military spending (adjusted for inflation) is now about 15% higher than it was during the Cold War. What explains this 15% increase? Perhaps last month's Harper's Index does:

Percentage of Pentagon contracts since 1998 that have been awarded on a no-bid basis: 44