**Note: We are republishing each of the 22 challenges from Catherine’s fiscal cliff article – one a week. Helps to digest them bit by bit!**

By Catherine Austin Fitts

Global “Empire Building” and the deployment of our military to support that effort, has resulted in a huge loss of domestic investment, GNP and tax revenue.

Since the end of the Cold War, the deployment of military, intelligence and special forces assets globally has increased significantly, as have related expenditures. This has shifted expenditures from domestic economic activity to global activity as the army, contractors and support functions move abroad. This is compounded by the fact that the most recent U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq have exceeded their original costs by many multiples, with numerous reports of monies disappearing mysteriously along the way.

Trying to limit the “mission creep” of this part of the budget has seemed impossible and has been the subject of numerous books, including Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State by Dana Priest and William Arkin and Blank Check by Tim Weiner.

Congress is now in the position of trying to rein back an insatiable security state – a dangerous thing to do.