The United States was always ahead of the Soviet Union in military spending and escalating the arms race. We even have documented statements from Western architects who said the purpose was to bankrupt the Soviets.
No, the Soviet Union was spending 20% of its GDP on the military. The US, at the height of the cold war was spending 6%.
That's the only country which wasn't at war which was proportionally spending that much on the military.
The Soviet Union was a military state disguised as a country, pretty much nothing outside the military really mattered there.
It's even visible on the inside organisation of the Soviet Union itself (which they picked themselves, nobody asked them), which is pretty much the same as in any army, just at a country level.
Sure, the US exploited that flaw but it's been there by design.
