The defense budget burden: Colombia and the United States
Thanks to a column by Hernán González Rodríguez in today’s edition of Medellín’s El Colombiano newspaper, we found a very useful document (PDF) on the website of Colombia’s Treasury Ministry. It breaks down, according to function and institution, the Colombian government’s budget for 2010, and what it expects to spend in 2011.
Colombia, which has an internal armed conflict and Latin America’s second-largest armed forces after Brazil (and an army that’s actually larger than Brazil’s), will spend 20.0 percent of its budget, and 3.9 percent its entire economy, on its military and police next year. This would be up from 18.4 percent of the budget and down from 4.2 percent of the economy this year.
Colombia will spend US$12.1 billion on its Defense Ministry and National Police next year, at the current peso-to-dollar exchange rate. That’s about US$270 from each one of Colombia’s 45 million citizens.
But U.S. citizens bear an even higher military burden, as indicated in the White House’s budget estimates for 2011 (go here [PDF] and look at “Table 3.1—Outlays by Superfunction and Function”).
The United States will spend US$749.7 billion on defense next year. That’s 23.0 percent of on-budget spending, and 4.8 percent of the U.S. economy. This is up from 22.7 percent and down from 4.9 percent in 2010.
That’s about US$2,400 from each one of the United States’ 310.5 million citizens.
Unlike Colombia, this figure does not include police forces, who are scattered across thousands of state and local jurisdictions and impossible to add here.
(U.S. 2011 GDP estimate: the White House’s 2010 “Mid-Session Review”
Colombia 2011 GDP estimate: the IMF’s 2010 Article IV Consultation [PDF])