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The United States spends absurdly more than any other country in the world - something like 6-8 times more than any other country in the world, depending on the year. It's close to being more than all the rest of the world combined - and many of those making up the rest of it are our allies! Locally, I think we here in Greenville should agree that any cuts in government spending should begin with the bloated military budget. What is Mitt Romney thinking by suggesting we need to increase this spending?
The United States spends absurdly more than any other country in the world - something like 6-8 times more than any other country in the world, depending on the year. It's close to being more than all the rest of the world combined - and many of those making up the rest of it are our allies! Locally, I think we here in Greenville should agree that any cuts in government spending should begin with the bloated military budget. What is Mitt Romney thinking by suggesting we need to increase this spending?
As a local, I think SC has done a great job of sucking federal dollars away from more wealthy, usually liberal states. We take way more from the Federal government than we put in. And most of that is through Federal military spending.
It is the best, most advanced military in the world and far beyond what is needed. It should be cut at least 20-40% over 5-10 years.
It stays as big as it is because politicians like to take credit for military spending in their communities and spending with their corporate contributors and don't give a reasonable care for the horrendously huge deficit and national debt. A Tea Party that to my knowledge shows no concern about the waste & fraud in the military budget and little to no concern about their violations of American citizen privacy in the name of post 911 homeland security is really not that serious about fiscal soundness or freedom.
I would agree about the best military in the world. For those of you who would wish to cut it, think about this. Our military readiness allows us to fight a war ANYWHERE in the world. We are the most mobile military in history. With just hours notice, we can be in any corner of the world. That costs a LOT of money. Would you rather fight a war on terror in the middle east, or right here in your backyard? Cut the military and you'll lose the ability to fight overseas and keep our enemies at arms length.
Also consider this.......We are the worlds police force. It is downright EXPECTED for us to right the wrongs in this world. When we do, we are seen as meddling westerners. But just let one mass human injustace go by without our involvement and see what backlash occurs. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. But I'd rather help than not help and I'd rather have a "kick a$$" military to keep us and our freedoms safe.
I would agree about the best military in the world. For those of you who would wish to cut it, think about this. Our military readiness allows us to fight a war ANYWHERE in the world. We are the most mobile military in history. With just hours notice, we can be in any corner of the world. That costs a LOT of money. Would you rather fight a war on terror in the middle east, or right here in your backyard? Cut the military and you'll lose the ability to fight overseas and keep our enemies at arms length.
Also consider this.......We are the worlds police force. It is downright EXPECTED for us to right the wrongs in this world. When we do, we are seen as meddling westerners. But just let one mass human injustace go by without our involvement and see what backlash occurs. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. But I'd rather help than not help and I'd rather have a "kick a$$" military to keep us and our freedoms safe.
I think most people, myself included, don't *want* to be able to fight a war anywhere in the world at a moments notice. I wish we would stop getting involved in business in other countries that doesn't directly involve us (and no, our oil prices rising because of instability in a region isn't direct involvement, that would be indirect). The amount of money we spend on the military is ridiculous. Beyond ridiculous, ludicrous. It would be far better to get some backlash about not getting involved in something than the eventual severe backlash that will happen when we get involved in something we shouldn't have.
If anyone has actually done work for either the military or NASA, you'd know that much of our technology is OLD and much of it still running on legacy systems from the cold war. But hey at least some stuff will still be operational after an EMP pulse!
If anyone has actually done work for either the military or NASA, you'd know that much of our technology is OLD and much of it still running on legacy systems from the cold war. But hey at least some stuff will still be operational after an EMP pulse!
Have you done such work? Would you consider our military and military spending to be efficient or bloated?
Whether our "Old" technology is bad depends on the age of the technology of the opponents we would be potentially fighting against. Is our military technology old compared to that of the Taliban? Iraqi insurgents?
Is our military technology inferior to the one-sixth-our-spending Chinese military? If so, it doesn't seem like our spending level could possibly be the problem. We're dumping money at our military by the truckload, head and shoulders beyond anyone else on Earth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iam4USC
Also consider this.......We are the worlds police force. It is downright EXPECTED for us to right the wrongs in this world. When we do, we are seen as meddling westerners. But just let one mass human injustace go by without our involvement and see what backlash occurs. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. But I'd rather help than not help and I'd rather have a "kick a$$" military to keep us and our freedoms safe.
So why aren't we pressuring our allies to chip into the cost of global security? Why do we allow the Europeans to spend all their money on social welfare and let us pick up the entire tab to run a global police force? Why do we have military bases in Germany and Japan - these are rich countries that should be able to pay for their own security. We should cut our spending and make the Europeans put up or shut up.
I imagine that the big contract businesses lobby for big military spending which in turn means big profits for those companies. We just happen to outspend all other countries in this area.
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