1988, with the deficit increasing by 220%. A Soviet budget plan approved in 1988, if applied, would send the deficit to 125 billion rubles ($75 billion), a 400% increase in debt and 13% of Soviet gross national product (GNP). In comparison, the highest American budget deficit fell at 3.5% of the United States’ GNP. The American budget gradually increased and represented a heavier percentage of the American budget during the 1983 and 1985 fiscal years. 25% of the 1983 budget consisted of defense, the Department of Defense spent $383,551,051,051, 24% of the overall budget and more than any other US program. Defense also accounted for 59% of optional, or discretionary spending for the 1983 fiscal year. By passing a bigger budget for the 1985
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After expanding the defense budget, President Ronald Reagan declared budget allocation for new fields of study such as space and land-based antiballistic missile systems. Reagan used a portion of the budget to fund his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), asking Congress to set SDI’s budget at $5.4 billion in 1987, almost double his the next most expensive technology, $2.8 billion for the purchase of F/A 18 jets. Initial SDI funding started at $1.4 billion when the initiative became an official government policy in 1984. The funding increased $4 billion over the course of three years, accounting for the growth in defense spending throughout those …show more content…
Built for “intercepting and destroying missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies,” the proposal contained ideas for “computer-guided, ground-based, X-ray lasers and space-based antinuclear craft”. The concept of a space-based defense system to target and destroy enemy missiles and nuclear warheads would inhibit any attempt of long-range attack on the US. The creation of a strategic defense system as powerful as SDI had an incredible impact on the course of the Cold War, rendering Mutually Assured Destruction Doctrine (MAD) inconsequential. MAD signified a promise that if one country used nuclear weapons or other WMD’s on another country, the country at fault would face an immediate counterattack. The doctrine came into play after years of Cold War technology allowed the USA and the USSR to attack each other, but had no way of defending home soil from the imminent
After expanding the defense budget, President Ronald Reagan declared budget allocation for new fields of study such as space and land-based antiballistic missile systems. Reagan used a portion of the budget to fund his Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), asking Congress to set SDI’s budget at $5.4 billion in 1987, almost double his the next most expensive technology, $2.8 billion for the purchase of F/A 18 jets. Initial SDI funding started at $1.4 billion when the initiative became an official government policy in 1984. The funding increased $4 billion over the course of three years, accounting for the growth in defense spending throughout those …show more content…
Built for “intercepting and destroying missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies,” the proposal contained ideas for “computer-guided, ground-based, X-ray lasers and space-based antinuclear craft”. The concept of a space-based defense system to target and destroy enemy missiles and nuclear warheads would inhibit any attempt of long-range attack on the US. The creation of a strategic defense system as powerful as SDI had an incredible impact on the course of the Cold War, rendering Mutually Assured Destruction Doctrine (MAD) inconsequential. MAD signified a promise that if one country used nuclear weapons or other WMD’s on another country, the country at fault would face an immediate counterattack. The doctrine came into play after years of Cold War technology allowed the USA and the USSR to attack each other, but had no way of defending home soil from the imminent