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Are you suggesting that cost overruns are a reason to no longer develop defense capability?
I'm a taxpayer....of course I care about cost overrun. I care a great deal! But I'm not calling for the US defense capability to be scrapped because of it!
That's the difference between me and you.
DEFENSE, DEFENSE??? Give me a break! These are no more play toys for defense than most all of the military hardware, they are for OFFENSE Baby so we can continue to try to play world policeman and keep our nose in others business!
Even if there is fraud amongst the Food Stamp users the real recipients of the subsidy have already collected their money. Food Stamp program could care less if the food is eaten just so long as it has been bought. Food Stamps subsidize the agricultural industry first.
I also an not calling for the US defenses to be scrapped. I am calling for them to be made more efficient and designed for the next war not the one five decades ago. We need a defense system that protects the country not just Defense industry profits.
Government contracts are given to favored cronies (remember the Healthcare website contract fiasco anyone) and to reward favored politicians. Congressmen/women's constituents are happy with well paying, never ending government contracts and happily reelect them again and again. Unneeded military weapons contracts have been funded by Congress for as long as I can remember.
The people elect congressmen and senators to bring home the bacon.
That Congress allocates funds for new tanks the military does not need or want, says it all. Then the federal government "gifts" them to other countries in hopes they will " like" the US on FB and/ or to municipalities for kicks.
Zero, zip, nada subsidy for flooding. If you choose to build/ live / operate in areas highly prone to flooding, you pay the full premium or self insure, assuming ownership is free and clear of a mortgage.
Are you suggesting that cost overruns are a reason to no longer develop defense capability?
I'm a taxpayer....of course I care about cost overrun. I care a great deal! But I'm not calling for the US defense capability to be scrapped because of it!
That's the difference between me and you.
No one is calling for our defense capability to be scrapped. I am calling for our already-dominant defense capability to remain the same, since we don't need to engage in an arms buildup anytime soon.
No one is calling for our defense capability to be scrapped. I am calling for our already-dominant defense capability to remain the same, since we don't need to engage in an arms buildup anytime soon.
That's your opinion. Tell us how you derived that opinion.
That's your opinion. Tell us how you derived that opinion.
Because there is no Soviet Union anymore, our troops aren't locked in a staring contest with armored divisions anymore. We already spend a huge amount on defense, more than the next 10 or so countries combined. We're going to be fighting a different kind of war, not one that needs strategic bombers to carpet-bomb cities into oblivion. You saw what happened in 2003 in Iraq, what happened in 91 in Kuwait. We're already dominant; why do we need to be more dominant?
With nuclear missile carrying submarines, ship based cruise missiles, B-1s, B-2s, and missile packing drones, why do we need to replace the aging B-52s?
Both the B-1B and the B-2 were sold as replacements for the B-52H (A-G have aready been retired. The problem is they cost so much that fewer than exepected were buit. There is scarely enough B-2s (We only have about 20 and considering the cost of the program each plane has a sunk cost of over 2 billion dollars) to comprise a wing (air force unit like a division) and all the B-2 are based at only one place (Whiteman AFB in central Missouri). This makes a counter force strike against the B-2 very easy, hit one base and you can scratch the B-2 off the list of things to do if you are fighting the USA. The B-1B or Lancer isn't that much better only 99 were built and given that 15 have crashed in the 30 years the plane has been flying only 85 are still flying. Neither the B-1B or B-2 has been used against a peer nation equiped with a modern air defense (interceptors, advanced SAMs, good radar, computers and communications (command and control) so we don't know if they would be effective or an expensive flop.
We use them to fight opponents who have none of this and using the B-17 or B-29 would probably be just as effective, cheaper and more fun given their all manual flight control systems.
Another alternative (actually proposed during the late 1970s by Harold Brown Carter's Sec. of Defense) that has been vigorously rejected by the USAF is using commercial jet transports like the 747 (imagine the bomb load one of these would carry) or 767 as bombing platforms or stand-off strike planes using ALCM to strike the enemy from over a thousand miles distance. Large commercial transports have the same flight characteristics, range and are already used as tanker planes (The new KC-46 is based on the 767 modificed to be a tanker plane) so its is not difficult to accomdate the planes in our current air force infrastructure. There are hundreds of such planes sitting in mothballs so new ones would not have to be built, Boeing still makes parts and the modifications would not be so expensive. An added benefit for the flight crews is they would log hundreds if not thousands of hours in the same type of planes operated by commercial aviation and thus would be attractive candiadates for pilot positions (They also wouldn't have to shake some of the bad flying habits pilots bring with them after having flown tactical planes like the F-15, 16 or 18. ).
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