While Jack here and a good amount of American’s favor DEEPER cuts…..
As the Dog would say….
Ain’t gonna happen…
This sin’t the first time I’m posting this story…
And it won’t be the last…
The American Defense budget is HUGE….
And I’ve always felt is was a for the countries protection…
But…
More so ….
It’s a Giant Jobs program…
And a ‘Men and their Toys’ exercise…
That this Nation needs a strong Defense goes without question…
That in order to protect this country we need assets at home and ABROAD ….
Also is without question…
The level of that protection is a question that Congress and the President deal with day in and day out….
We American’s of course voice our opinions….
But those voices are mostly heard in forums like this blog, and the media….
Politician’s lead the country and pay the bills…
With our money….
But as I saw in a community meeting last night…
The individual in this country has very little if NO input in the WAY tax dollars are spent….
In that meeting a young man who had kids in the community wanted to know why HIS government was NOT supporting his school districts need to increase their budget…
And why did his district have to raise taxes to get what they needed?
This while the people in Washington did whatever they wanted with HIS money….
It was explained to the harried parent (who was working extra hours to pay his bills)
That Politician’s don’t really care about us until election time…
And that unless they where reminded RIGHT BEFORE elections….
You where shit outta luck…..
Last year BOTH American political parties elbowed each other to make cuts to the Defense Buidget….
The President detailed further cuts…
That’s NOT gonna happen….
While I agree with the popular call for cuts …
It’s NOT that simple….
I follow the Defense system a bit….
The system is HUGE…
And Yes…
It employees MILLIONS of American here and abroad…
Those empolyee’s pay Federal, State , Local and other taxes even abroad…
That adds up to a LOT of money….
Making immediate n=massive personnel cuts would probably throw the country back into a recession….
Your everyday politician knows that…
So all the bullshit about cuts is just that BULL SHIT….
Despite what the Republican keep harping about making up the money in Social program cuts…..
That ain’t gonna happen EITHER….
NOBODY is gonna cut Social Security, Medicare, medicaid or even Food stamp and try to keep their political offices in less than 6 months…
I don’t give a tinkers damn HOW conservative they are….
Cause NOBODY over 60 years of age is gonna vote for them…
So we have a stalemate ….
Automatic Cuts are supposed to kick in for this Defense Budget…
Congress CAN’T let that happen…
So after all the theatre a year ago…
We’re gonna watch these people, We Elected to HELP us figure out a way to UNDO most of the cuts they and the President rolled out….
And like the guy last night was told…
There isn’t much he, or we , are gonna be able do about it…..
While politicians, insiders, and experts may be divided over how much the government should spend on the nation’s defense, there’s a surprising consensus among the public about what should be done: They want to cut spending far more deeply than either the Obama Administration or the Republicans.
That’s according to the results of an innovative, new, nationwide survey by the Center for Public integrity, the Program for Public Consultation, and the Stimson Center. Not only does the public want deep cuts, it wants those cuts to encompass spending in virtually every military domain — air power, sea power, ground forces, nuclear weapons, and missile defenses.
According to the survey, in which respondents were told about the size of the budget as well as shown expert arguments for and against spending cuts, two-thirds of Republicans and nine in 10 Democrats supported making immediate cuts — a position at odds with the leaderships of both political parties.
The average total cut was around $103 billion, a substantial portion of the current $562 billion base defense budget, while the majority supported cutting it at least $83 billion. These amounts both exceed a threatened cut of $55 billion at the end of this year under so-called “sequestration” legislation passed in 2011, which Pentagon officials and lawmakers alike have claimed would be devastating.
“When Americans look at the amount of defense spending compared to spending on other programs, they see defense as the one that should take a substantial hit to reduce the deficit,” said Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation and the lead developer of the survey. “Clearly the polarization that you are seeing on the floor of the Congress is not reflective of the American people.”
A broad disagreement with the Obama Administration’s current spending approach — keeping the defense budget mostly level — was shared by 75 percent of men and 78 percent of women, all of whom instead backed immediate cuts. That view was also shared by at least 69 percent of every one of four age groups from 18 to 60 and older, although those aged 29 and below expressed much higher support, at 92 percent…..
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You comments are not well taken
Assuming you are correct
Then the whole idea of participatory democracy,elections and indeed YOUR blog is a sham
While I think everyone agrees that various political machinations are inevitable in a democracy such as ours
To imply that citizens have no real input
Gives the word “cynical” a new definition
Indeed your “position”which is more like just some old fashioned demagoguery
Is at its base
Illogical
You have preached here endlessly about the dire financial situation the country is in
I agree
To then claim that absolutely no cuts of any significance will be made negates your whole Cold War based analogy
Because if the country falls off the proverbial economic cliff
Then what happens to all these weapon systems and the behemoth military establishment that supports them?
Ultimately and sooner rather than later major decisions are going to have to be made
And yes even the political class will have to act
It has always seemed odd to me that someone who holds your beliefs would waste his time with a political site
When in the piece above you basically say:
Anyone who participates in our Democratic institutions or who even expresses an opinion about it is WASTING THEIR TIME
Accordingly
What exactly are you doing here?
Expressing and indeed soliciting arguments and ideas that are pointless?
Have you ever considered basket weaving, badminton or animal husbandry?
Your rant comes across as arrogance pure and simple
You sit back secure in your “knowledge” that the poor wretches who care about what happens are just so much flotsam whipped along in a sea of ignorance unable to discern the truths that those like you fully comprehend
POMPOUS
And
SICKENING BS!
You ARE in rare form on this
Hey Jack WHO said NO cuts?
NOT me……
NO MAJOR CUTS?
Yup I’ll cop to that…..