2) As long as we continue to allow the liberals to focus the discussion on excess government spending only on military spending, we will never have an intelligent discussion about federal government spending levels.
The military is one of the very few things that is specifically authorized in the US Constitution. The War on Drugs, the War on Poverty, the Clinton investment in midnight basketball, etc., is outside the scope of authorized government spending, but unfortunately, it is also outside the scope of most current discussion about spending. We are waging the wrong battle in this War about Fairness.
A good first step would be to get people to make the distinction between “General Fund” spending (which is paid for by income taxes, excise taxes, and import duties) and “Social Insurance” benefits payments (which are paid for by mandatory FICA contributions from wages).
Why ? Because it is important that people realize the so-called “social security taxes” they think make them “taxpayers” are nothing of the kind. They don’t pay for a dime’s worth of national security, infrastructure, judiciary, etc. That money is loaned to the Treasury and may never be paid back, but at least on paper, it doesn’t pay for anything except the over-promised SS/M benefits.
I’d like people to talk about the two separate Federal Budgets again rather than lumping together “taxes and contributions” on one side and “spending and benefits payments” on the other.