While I think troops could be withdrawn from a number of spots, that’s not the budget issue and you know it. Nowhere close. “Entitlement” spending, Social Security, Medicare, and other idiocies are the central problem, and it doesn’t matter if taxes are “historically low,” they are ridiculously HIGH for the current business climate. I repeat, there is NEVER a time not to cut taxes.
Defense + Veterans + Homeland Security + Nuclear Weapons/Fuel 10/09 = $91 billion
Medicare + Medicaid 10/09 = $86 billion
Social Security + Disability 10/09 = $65 billion
Interest on Public Debt 10/09 = $18 billion
The defense budget numbers are entirely driven by troop/sailor levels. Manpower + O&M is $50 billion alone, while Veterans + Defense Civil of another $17 billion is ongoing legacy costs of force levels.
Forward deployment overseas is the most expensive group of troops because of logistics costs.
Medicare/Social Security are entirely paid for by the FICA tax for the forseeable future, therefore they are not the cause of the deficit/income tax/corporate tax problems we face, although the spending levels they have are an abomination.
Welfare + Unemployment + Education + Energy + Foreign Aid + Agirculture Subsidies + Food Stamps + EPA in 10/09 = $43 billion
Bad as these are, they aren’t the locus of the problem.
Income Taxes (personal + corporate) = $57 billion
Deficit = -$176 billion