When you’re the world’s police officer and biggest industrial nation, yeah you’re gonna spend more then the others in the group. Yet not understanding the reasoning as to why you spend more then others and start throwing stones tells me ya gotta show up to those morning briefings a bit more regardless if it’s repetitive – PB/TK
How NATO is funded and who pays what – by Ivana Kottasova March 20, 2017
President Trump accused Germany over the weekend of owing NATO and the United States vast sums of money for defense.
That claim was promptly rejected by Germany’s defense minister, as well as former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder.
Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization spend money on their own defense. The money they send to NATO directly accounts for less than 1% of overall defense spending by members of the alliance.
Here’s how it works.
National budgets
NATO is based on the principle of collective defense: an attack against one or more members is considered an attack against all. So far that has only been invoked once — in response to the September 11 attacks.
To make the idea work, it is important for all members to make sure their armed forces are in good shape. So NATO sets an official target on how much they should spend. That currently stands at 2% of GDP.
The 2% target is described as a “guideline.” There is no penalty for not meeting it.
It is up to each country to decide how much to spend and how to use the money
Continue to money.cnn.com article: http://money.cnn.com/2017/03/20/news/nato-funding-explained/index.html