Posted on 05/16/2014 7:35:26 AM PDT by Lazamataz
You may have never seen this quote. It may never have been taught to you in school, when studying the Founding Fathers. There may be a reason this particular quote was omitted -- perhaps the powers-that-be did not want you to focus on the truth contained therein.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, on January 17, 1961, famously warned us of the 'military-industrial complex'. Yet, in that speech, he spent little time in describing the results should we not heed his warning. George Washington, on the other hand, succinct laid out the results in a single sentence.
We see that our first President is entirely correct. Our over-grown military establishment is bleeding into the civilian living space: We have 'excess' MRAP armored vehicles being delivered to local law enforcement; we have drones that were pioneered by the military being increasingly used against the American populace; we are now universally monitored and spied upon; and more and more, we see the training and doctrine of the United States Military being applied by law enforcement.
No one would argue that we, in America, are not rushing headlong into a totalitarian police state. George Washington informs us that it was inevitable, when we decided to have the most over-grown military in the world.
Yes. . .sadly, you are correct.
I suspect they need additional funding for related maintenance, upkeep and training...
Look up the overhead, G&A and fee rates you guys charged for 3 missles.
As long as the spigot keeps running, I’ll keep making money, as will the rest of the DC area. CSC and Northrup Grumman being spitting headquarterd spitting distance from my house boosts my home value significantly. I won’t complain too loudly
We now spend a much lessor proportion of the gross domestic product, about 3.5% in FY13, on the military than we did in the '50s and and early '60s, when defense outlays were about 8-9% of GDP but a larger fraction on the federal government as a whole.
For example in FY62, defense was 9.3% of GDP and federal spending as a whole was 18.8% of GDP, the deficient was 1% of GDP, entitlements were 6.1% In FY12, defense was 4.3%, total federal outlays were 22.8%, the deficit was 7.4% and entitlements were 22.8% You could have eliminated the defense budget entirely and there would sill have been a 3.1% of GDP deficit, assuming one didn't increase entitlements, which with all the people that would have thrown on extended unemployment, food stamps etc, the deficit probably would have been higher than that, not allowing for the decrease in GDP, which would make the deficit a larger percentage yet.
They were "hand made" developmental birds, for both our system and Patriot, and thus quite expensive.
But you go look up profit margins for say Lockheed Martin, verses something like General Mills, or Conagra.
I didn’t realize General Mills and Conangra got 90% + of their revenue from the tax payer
I thinks is particularly appropriate in light of our increasingly militarizes police forces and government agencies.
Excellent—thank you.
Because they never read the text or researched what he was saying. Never let a good tag-line stop an agenda.
Also, in the speech, he commented on the emerging influence of academia because of increased government grants and research funding. Same caveat: Need informed citizens and councils of government (Congress and such things).
Thank you for your insights, dear Laz!
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