It’s likely that defense sending could be cut to some extent. What this country really needs is some “real” jobs and not a bunch of “make-busy” crap. A good place to start would be oil production. There are no lack of places to drill and that includes Anwar. Let the environmentalists be damned!
Easiest way to save some serious defense dollars is to stop fighting our 3 overseas wars.
Plus we ought not to have bases in countries that don’t want us (unless there is an overriding strategic reason, that is).
I'd almost bet the DoD is the ONLY place in the budget that has seen REAL CUTS to its budget since WWII.
All other programs that have been "cut" have seen growth slowed, but the budget either stalled or still went up some.
Yes, Defense cuts are on the table, but they must be reasonable. Defense is a Constitutional obligation of the US Government, and one that is necessary. Other areas do not hold this distinction.
I’ve been employed in the military-industrial complex for 33 years. The waste is huge, but the waste is demanded by government contracts. Let’s say the government is going to buy a hammer. You get the contract. The contract insists you test 50 samples to destruction ($5,500 each test) and submit a report (40 hours at $155/hour). You’ve of course got to be ISO 9001 certified (55 million for the first year and 20 million per each year after for my most recent employer.) You’ve got to meet EOE, OSHA, EPA and all sorts of standards. You can’t use any number of banned materials or processes. The list goes on and on and on. Every line in that contract costs the manufacturer money and he doesn’t dare to say, “Wait, you don’t need that.” As a matter of fact, the manufacturer likes all those requirements because profit is a percentage of costs. If you make 10%, your take is much more on $50,000,000 than on $50,000.
We could provide a credible military at a fraction of today’s costs, but it would require undoing just about everything as it now practiced. For example, let’s say the country wants to buy 500 fighter jets over 10 years. The cost would drop dramatically if the manufacturer would build using automation. But since automation required 10 years to amortize and the money for the multi-year buy is allocated year by year, every fighter is built like it’s a one-off item. (Very expensive.)
I could go on for pages, but you get the idea. As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
The only problem with this logic is, that defense is the only thing this government is actually authorized to spend large sums of money on.
Defense DOES NOT equal 20% of the budget either, but if the government wants to cut just 80% of the budget items, I’ll settle for that amount.
The best way to reduce defense spending is to increase taxes to pay for it and to give the military an incentive to end wars rather than provide a blank check for endless.
Good morning, all. If the government would just get out of everything but defending our shores against the enemy think of the money we could save! I mean if they had just kept to what they were meant to do from the beginning think how much better off we would all be! It’s mind boggling! The dollar would be sound. Prices would be affordable. There would be even ground for all to prosper.
God would be in our classrooms. Stores would be closed on Sundays. Mothers could stay home and support fathers and together they would raise fine children. There would be no need for street gangs. We wouldn’t need to lock our doors anymore. I am old enough to remember when most of these things existed in America.
History has been history in the schools for the past two generations at least. Most people have no memory of what life was like in America. Have any of you read “The Light and the Glory”, by Peter Marshall and David Emanuel? It is the best read on the history 9of early America from l492 forward. Beautifully written, extremely well documented, a book every American should read, regardless of age. You can order through Borders. I’ have done that for giving to several of my grown grandchildren.And I plan to order more for their parents!
It is so true that if we don’t know where we came from we won’t know where and how to go. God bless America.
Why doesn’t Congress use this device to contain current spending: Cut the budgets of all programs and divisions of government by a small percentage such as 3% and tell the various departments to find their own way to meet the budget cuts.
They could furlough employees, cut waste, refuse to spend the money left at the end of a fiscal year, end useless programs, etc.
Further information, the US defense budget (2010)
Components
Operations and maintenance $283.3 billion
Personnel $154.2 billion
Procurement $140.1 billion
Research, Development, Testing & Evaluation $79.1 billion
Military Construction $23.9 billion
Family Housing $3.1 billion