Liberal free for all coming to an end

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by Derek1968

Republicans never will touch the Defense Budget. Why not?

Have you heard of the peace dividend from George Bush Sr? Republicans will cut defense spending when it makes sense. BO has us in some kind of war with Afghanistan. Not really sure what that's all about, but you don't cut defense when you're in a war.

But speaking of not touching something. Why have you not mentioned the democrats refusal to touch entitlement programs which dwarf defense? Not only do they never touch them, but they continuously add to them.

[smc]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Have you heard of the peace dividend from George Bush Sr? Republicans will cut defense spending when it makes sense. BO has us in some kind of war with Afghanistan. Not really sure what that's all about, but you don't cut defense when you're in a war.

But speaking of not touching something. Why have you not mentioned the democrats refusal to touch entitlement programs which dwarf defense? Not only do they never touch them, but they continuously add to them.

I'm all for the immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, but even Tracy knows that this war was inherited by Obama, not started by him. Of course, why let facts get in the way when you have a point to make (even if that point is inexplicable)?

[randolph]

Tracy

But speaking of not touching something. Why have you not mentioned the democrats refusal to touch entitlement programs which dwarf defense? Not only do they never touch them, but they continuously add to

Really! The Pentagon budget exceeds all other Federal expenses combined, over 50% of the budget. The biggest welfare program the world has ever seen. Fuck market capitalism, lets just spend our money on useless stupid military hardware and fat ass generals. Our massive cold war style military is an abject failure at dealing with current terrorist reality.

[franalexes]

I hope they don't cut any scientific research on how to improve the plastic ends on shoe laces.

[The Conquistador]

Originally Posted by randolph

Tracy

Really! The Pentagon budget exceeds all other Federal expenses combined, over 50% of the budget. The biggest welfare program the world has ever seen. Fuck market capitalism, lets just spend our money on useless stupid military hardware and fat ass generals. Our massive cold war style military is an abject failure at dealing with current terrorist reality.

Wrong! Health and Human Services has the most expenses.

There are four things that cost us money...

1) Medicare
2) Military Spending
3) Social Security
4) Interest(Treasury Dept.)

Any conversation of reduction that does not focus on these 4 things is pretty much pointless.

[franalexes]

Originally Posted by The Conquistador

Wrong! Health and Human Services has the most expenses.

There are four things that cost us money...

1) Medicare
2) Military Spending
3) Social Security
4) Interest(Treasury Dept.)

Any conversation of reduction that does not focus on these 4 things is pretty much pointless.

Don't you just hate it when someone brings all the facts into a discussion?

[Mel Asher]

Well, it's much the same on this side of the Atlantic too.

Might even be symptomatic of capitalism itself, except that there are too many nominally-Democratic Totalitarian governments which do not !

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by randolph

Tracy

Really! The Pentagon budget exceeds all other Federal expenses combined, over 50% of the budget. The biggest welfare program the world has ever seen. Fuck market capitalism, lets just spend our money on useless stupid military hardware and fat ass generals. Our massive cold war style military is an abject failure at dealing with current terrorist reality.

Oops, make that 23%

[randolph]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

Oops, make that 23%

I apologize. The post I read was wrong and I should have checked it out.

[randolph]

Originally Posted by randolph

I apologize. The post I read was wrong and I should have checked it out.

Actually, I should have pointed out that the plus fifty percent applied to discretionary spending not the total budget.
The point is that the military spending is discretionary so if we seriously want to get out of this budget hole, we need to cut military spending. Our Congress is not willing to do that. Are they hostages to the military industrial complex? Eisenhower would be shocked and appalled.

[TracyCoxx]

Originally Posted by randolph

Actually, I should have pointed out that the plus fifty percent applied to discretionary spending not the total budget.
The point is that the military spending is discretionary so if we seriously want to get out of this budget hole, we need to cut military spending. Our Congress is not willing to do that. Are they hostages to the military industrial complex? Eisenhower would be shocked and appalled.

I'm not sure where your source came from (it doesn't even have a year on it, or even a country for that matter lol), and to tell the truth, I'm not sure where my pie chart came from. So I went to the horses mouth here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/winning-th...ractive-budget

Since it's not in a convenient pie chart I made my own (you can check the numbers if you like, I didn't fudge anything. Just mouse over the categories and see the numbers there). And then I made another one lumping all the welfare programs into one category.

You say, or your source says, that defense is discretionary. I would argue that maybe some of it is discretionary, but for a large country, full of resources like the US, it's mandatory.

Defense is 19.27% and welfare programs are a whopping 60.84% of the budget. Some can certainly be cut from defense... when we're not at war, but 60% for welfare programs for a country with as many opportunities as US has is quite excessive. I am certainly not saying welfare should be cut entirely, but a number that high is screaming for scrutiny to see where cuts can be made.