I don’t disagree. And I find it troubling that we are still focused on taxes. Certainly we shouldn’t be raising taxes. But we should be focused on spending. Whole departments should be cut or eliminated. And yes, the military will be a part of that cutting.
I absolutely agree on the spending.
This is the single biggest area of disagreement I have with the GOP right now. They like to say “We’re going to cut spending!”
I reply “Sounds good! How much?”
If the number they quote back to me doesn’t end in “trillion” I’m not impressed.
If a chainsaw-wielding politically heartless monster (eg, moi) were loosed upon the budget with a chainsaw, I could hack and slash a cool trillion out of our budget... and we’d STILL be running a deficit in the 300 to 500 billion range.
As for the defense budget: Time for the toy-shopping to come to an end. When I see the thread after thread here on FR about the latest money being pissed down ratholes on “what is the next evolution of infantry rifles?”, I wanna spit nails. Those programs are chump change in the big picture, but the point is, we gun nuts have been reading of one instance after another of these idiotic programs for, what, the last 10 to 12 years? And we’re still using a M-16 derived weapon, and 5.56 NATO ammo, blah, blah. The foreseeable future shows us that we’re going to be involved in nasty, dirty wars in dungheap countries with names like Bakalaka-lakastan with no air power of their own, and we’re spending billions on JSF and other fighter platforms? Uh, why?
After 65 years, I reckon the Krauts are pacified pretty well. Can’t we finally pack up and leave them to go back to pissing at the French?
On and on and on. Yes, we need a military. We don’t need a $800B+/year military if we would decide that we’re not the world’s traffic cop and we’re done subsidizing other countries who then use their budgetary freedom from military spending of their own to develop export markets to the US, which then cost us jobs. My attitude on Germany, for example, is that if they’re rich enough to prop up the EU and Euro, then they’re rich enough to defend the stupid thing too. Defending the EU ain’t our problem.
But we never hear the GOP (or Democrats, who like to pose as doves) talk about real cuts in defense spending.
We are already borrowing at the fedgov level, something like 40 percent for year to year spending. Maybe half.
In a decade, all income taxes will go to service( not reduce ), roll over the debt.
In theory, in a decade, fedgov will have to double it’s consumption of citizens wealth, to maintain what ever it is that it does, and pay interest only on the debt.
Obama care is really a form of Democrat death spasm. One last gasp, and then the corpse begins to really stink and get ripe.
It’s all they know. Centralized planning. They have centralized/Washintonized every other part of the economy. Schools, manufacturing, agriculture....
Anyways, we in this country are on to at best a long term grind down, or some sort of social/economic/political donnybrook( an inordinately wild fight or contentious dispute; brawl; free-for-all )