I can't argue about off the books spending, but I also think it happens and it's wrong. Part of what allows things like that is an overly large and needlessly complex federal government. We agree that we spend too much on defense, but we don't agree on the social spending.
I don't think the majority of the money from bloated military contracts goes into bank accounts. Don't have any evidence to support it, but I would guess most of it goes into facilities, production, salary, materials, etc. That would be recycled into the economy. I'm not defending government spending (I think it's too much on everything), but I don't see a huge difference between that and what you proposed with social programs. I don't think the CEO of Boeing will take his millions from a military contract and put it in a bank account. I think he'll invest it in the stock market and give capital to other business to expand. Yes, he/she might put some in an offshore account, but he still was taxed on the bonus as income.
The thing about inheritance taxes is that they are just jealousy taxes. That money that people are leaving to their heirs has already been taxed. Why should it get taxed a second time for being inherited and then a third time when the kids spend it? That's just excessive. I wish my parents would leave me billions, but that is not the government's money. The government doesn't HAVE money; it just takes ours and spends it (poorly in many cases). I know, I know, conservative talking points, but it's true.
As for the jealousy, that is something that everyone has to work out on their own. I do think that we need to get businesses out of the federal government, but the only reason businesses try to influence the federal government is because it (gov) has so much power to influence our lives. Why would corporations spend money lobbying a weak government? They wouldn't.
Wasn't trying to obfuscate. I used the most recent passed numbers (2016) which says: "For FY 2017,
President Obama proposed the base budget of $523.9 billion, which includes an increase of $2.2 billion over the FY 2016 enacted budget of $521.7 billion." Also, with that $637B in 2015 it states :"spending for 2014-15 is estimated", so that might explain why 2014-2015 are inflated compared to 2016-2017. Yeah, it' a wiki, so not the best source, but don't be so quick to decry deception.
That's interesting about veterans benefits; I didn't know that. As above, I agree that we need to eliminate spending tucked away here and there and that we are spending too much on our military, too.