The full government cost of an active-duty service member is about $86,000 a year higher than what’s reflected in the Department of War’s budget.
That’s a cost that will ultimately be paid by taxpayers through VA’s budget decades from now, according to a Congressional Budget Office estimate of future veterans’ benefits that aren’t captured in the military’s personnel-cost accounting.
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In 1992, Bill Clinton won the presidential election partly on the basis of his campaign’s false accusation that George H. W. Bush had overseen “the worst economic performance since the Great Depression.” Or so claimed Clinton’s running mate Al Gore.
James Carville, chief campaign adviser to Clinton/Gore, amplified that message with the constant refrain: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
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