While the neocons complain Obama is destroying the US Military and while our veterans go without urgent healthcare, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has subsumed 24 other agencies under its control including the U.S. Coast Guard, Secret Service, National Biological Warfare and Defense Analysis Center. So what is actually going on?

From Kelley Vlahos’ excellent article entitled ‘A Blackwater World Order’ she states “From 1999 to 2008, at the peak of the wars, Pentagon spending on outsourcing alone increased from $165 billion to $466 billion a year.” BTW, the entire ‘official’ defense budget for 2008 was $696 billion. While the defense budget has decreased since its high of 721 billion in 2010, it has steadily increased since 2013 from 610 billion to 637 billion in 2015. Now, this budget does not include many, many defense related expenditures including the DHS which employs over 200,000 and 2.2 million first responders

DHS subsumed the following agencies, renaming many:

1. Federal Emergency Management Agency
2. Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
3. National Communications System
4. Energy Security and Assurance Program
5. National Infrastructure Protection Center
6. Domestic Emergency Support Teams
7. National Domestic Preparedness Office
8. Nuclear Incident Response Team
9. Office for Domestic Preparedness
10. Strategic National Stockpile
11. National Disaster Medical System
12. CBRN Countermeasures Programs
13. Environmental Measurements Laboratory
14. National Biological Warfare
15. Defense Analysis Center
16. Plum Island Animal Disease Center
17. Transportation Security Administration
18. U.S. Coast Guard
19. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
20. U.S. Customs Service
21. Immigration and Naturalization Service
22. Federal Protective Service
23. U.S. Secret Service
24. Federal Computer Incident Response Center