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1- It depends on what we are spending the money on. Why are we so expensive when Obama has cut personal to WWII levels? It's not as simple as you make it seem.
2- Other non-essential departments in the government will be cut to balance out the increase.
Ugh. Do explain how building more military equipment to stick in warehouses where it will never be used is more essential than things like healthcare and infrastructure that actually benefit society at large.
Tackling military waste is a huge nightmare though. The spending is farmed out to so many districts that it's very hard to get enough congressmen on board to actually change it, so we'll go right on wasting money on crap the military doesn't need or want.
Military spending (and foreign aid) is in large part just welfare for defense contractors.
Also, you may not have noticed but we're not fighting a world war. The military also hasn't been gutted as right wingers like to falsely claim. It's about the same size as in the 1990s.
Ugh. Do explain how building more military equipment to stick in warehouses where it will never be used is more essential than things like healthcare and infrastructure that actually benefit society at large.
Tackling military waste is a huge nightmare though. The spending is farmed out to so many districts that it's very hard to get enough congressmen on board to actually change it, so we'll go right on wasting money on crap the military doesn't need or want.
Military spending (and foreign aid) is in large part just welfare for defense contractors.
Also, you may not have noticed but we're not fighting a world war. The military also hasn't been gutted as right wingers like to falsely claim. It's about the same size as in the 1990s.
...and the US already spends more on our military than the next 5 biggest spending countries combined.
Why is this needed when we are currently only fighting IS, Al Queda and the Taliban - entities not even on the list.
I'd like t hear how liberals justify cutting our military to the bone in such dangerous times as these.
Every poster to this forum has a substantially higher risk of Cancer or Heart Disease or complications of Diabetes 2 than by an attack by a foreign country.
1- It depends on what we are spending the money on. Why are we so expensive when Obama has cut personal to WWII levels? It's not as simple as you make it seem.
2- Other non-essential departments in the government will be cut to balance out the increase.
The EPA and the State Department are non-essential? Because those two are getting massive cuts. And why is PBS and NEA getting cuts when they make up less than .1% of the budget?
If we boot the illegal aliens back to where they come from along with their public assistance sucking anchor babies, that will save us a bundle, $113+ billion per year and at their legendary fertility..........
I'm guessing you didn't have World and US History in high school, right? Obviously not or you would realize that what you are saying doesn't play out in the real world.
There is no plan to boot law abiding illegal aliens. If there was, e- Verify would be a Federal Law and consequences to US employers to hire them would be harsh.
He's going to try to create jobs the Regan way. Build up the defense.
But Reagan had the Cold War excuse, that economy crashed with the end of the USSR and don't most studies reflect that the Defense Department wastes massive amounts of money and is already bloated?
I think Trump just realized those coal jobs aren't coming back.
He has stock in defense contractors like Boeing. He just figured out how to increase his stock earnings.
IMO its a total waste of money but spending billions on the military sounds like good red meat for his base.Repeal healthcare and increase by billions military spending=rightwing logic
And yet they call themselves fiscal conservatives.
Well the fact is that despite our military spending much of our equipment such as aircraft is terribly outdated and in disrepair. When they are taking parts off of planes in the bone yard, something needs to be done.
To me it's more about quality, and right now we don't have that. Our military needs better equipment than what they have. So how about we stop funding other nations and take care of our own, something the globalist Obama was loathe to do.
Really? We have the most advanced military on the planet. Why do we need to keep spending more than the next 10 countries combined on our defense?
So how about we cut all the wasteful spending in the Defense Dept before throwing more money at it? Sounds like a really bad idea. I have to agree with the 'bad businessman' theory.
Trump is really good at spending, i.e., investing other people's money, and then losing it.
"...The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post...."
...The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology..."
The Pentagon has never been able to account for their spending, despite a law enacted in the 90's to do so. That Congress felt it necessary to write a law about something as basic as accounting for spending in mind boggling. Instead of holding their feet to the fire, there is an intent to throw more good money after bad.
During the campaign people said Trump's business ability would benefit the country and he'd run it like a business. Consider the following:
1) Advance word is Trump will seek a historic increase in military spending when he addresses Congress.
2) Our military is already the most expensive military in the world, BY FAR, more costly than the milirtaries of the next 7-10 nations combined.
3) Our defense is greatly aided by geography, we're surrounded by 2 oceans and 2 friendly countries.
4) Our DoD is the only major government agency to have never been audited, i.e. held responsible for its spending.
Just HOW is increasing the already bloated budget of this department 'good business'?
You make good points.
I also thought that Trump would (rightfully) pressure Europe, Japan, South Korea, etc...to pick up the slack more and carry their weight ----- for the purpose of freeing up our resources to reduce the deficit or spend on other things etc...
In regards to the audit, I am sure that is a lot of waste that can be cut without cutting any soldier's pay. Donald Rumsfeld thought that we could close 200 to 300 of our 1,000+ foreign military bases without hurting our military strength and saving us Billions of Dollars every year. Our former European Commander also said the same about 20% of the bases in Europe.
Come on Trump... Make Europe, Japan, and South Korea pick up the slack more and find waste - don't throw more money into this.
I've never agreed with the liberal interpretation of Keynesian economics that any government spending on anything is good spending.
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