[quote]I am aware you can't have both. That is what I am saying. There is no reason why we need to spend that much on military compared to other things that should come first. I guarantee that all that money is not being used to fund the military personal i.e. they are a large portion of the US homeless population.[/quote] Veterans are the ones who make up the homeless population, they are not apart of the active service. Unless someone put their 20 years in they aren't getting a pension. Everyone knows the veterans receive rather poor treatment, due to the VA having a slew of problems. I would say personnel cost the most old numbers but in 2012 the pentagon stated the cost for 1 soldier on duty in afghanistan was anywhere from 850,000 to 1.4 million USD. When you multiply that by however many troops are deployed it easily becomes the most expensive expenditure. Employees are always the highest expenditure in anything, thus why jobs are among the first things cut.