STRATEGIC

From Triumph to Stalemate: The Loss of American Consensus 31
Figure 2.5
Public Dissatisfaction with America’s Role in the World, 2000–2012
Recent trend (%)
100
80
60
40
20
67
30
71
27
69
67
55
50
48
43
29 30
51
47
56
51
48
42
% satisfied
% dissatisfied
54
43
61
37
68
30
66
32
63
35
63
35
64
36
0
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
Year
SOURCE: “U.S. Position in the World,” 2016.
RAND RR1631-2.5
economy has doubled since 2000. As of 2015, debt was 74 percent of
GDP. As shown in Figure 2.6, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
estimates that it could exceed GDP in 2040.
The highest debt level in history was in 1946, when debt peaked
at 106 percent of GDP because of the money borrowed to fight World
War II. 31 The Iraq and Afghanistan wars cost at least $1.8 trillion in
direct military spending from 2001 to 2015. 32 The United States did
not raise taxes to fund these conflicts and will continue to pay the
interest costs of borrowing the funds for those wars. Political gridlock
in Congress led to a down-to-the-wire battle over whether the country,
31 CBO, 2016, pp. 14–15; Shatz, 2016, pp. 23–25.
32 This figure understates the total war costs because it represents the cumulative total of
the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budgets from 2001 to 2015, in 2016 dollars,
which totaled almost $1.8 trillion, but does not include medical care or other veterans’ benefits
or other indirect costs. OCO spending averaged $117 billion per year during this period.
For fiscal year 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) requested $51 billion for OCO.
CBO, 2016, pp. 14–15.