foreign policy after world war 2 was battles in foreign lands. do you want the battles will be fought in US land US gov't will have no choice to cut back on the military and welfare. all these unemployment checks extensions are welfare and social security checkss are welfare. cancel the nasa program. cancel SEC
About 50% of US federal tax dollars go to defense related expenditures. Misthos, how dumb are you? are you on crack? A simple 2 minute search on the internet and you can get your facts straight. You need your voting privledges revoked.
Mav88, I found 54% went to current defense and former military (i.e retiree benefits) I dont begrudge that I mean they served our country well and proudly. What are you seeing? This was federal income tax btw.
Mav88 - I understand your concern, let me address that: Federal Income tax dollars are just that. Federal. Not Social Security, not Medicare, not unemployment... When a president discusses raising or lowering taxes - what is he referring to? The Fed Income tax - the same tax I refer to in my post. It's a distinction I am making - I do not lump SS or Medicare because they are separate taxes that are levied for specific purpose(s) - Medicare and SS does not fund the military or government functions, etc (at least not directly). When viewed in that light - then defense spending approaches/surpasses 50% depending on the year. Am I clear? a lot of people get confused when the military percentage to tax thing is discussed. I am basically not counting ss or medicare because they are actually separate funds earmarked with specific purposes. Your fed tax bracket is a separate thing from SS or medicare. Makes sense? aceofbase: As for us getting invaded... there are these things called the atlantic and pacific oceans. We can blow anyone out of the water or air before that could happen. That's why we were pretty much unscathed after WWII.
I agree... if anything, I especially believe active military is grossly underpaid. They should not be treated as social workers - but as the professionals they are and paid accordingly.
Mav88 - I understand your concern, let me address that: Federal Income tax dollars are just that. Federal. Not Social Security, not Medicare, not unemployment... When a president discusses raising or lowering taxes - what is he referring to? The Fed Income tax - the same tax I refer to in my post. It's a distinction I am making - I do not lump SS or Medicare because they are separate taxes that are levied for specific purpose(s) - Medicare and SS does not fund the military or government functions, etc (at least not directly). When viewed in that light - then defense spending approaches/surpasses 50% depending on the year. Am I clear? a lot of people get confused when the military percentage to tax thing is discussed. I am basically not counting ss or medicare because they are actually separate funds earmarked with specific purposes. Your fed tax bracket is a separate thing from SS or medicare. Makes sense? but what's the point? in the end it's all money that has to be paid and taxed. Artifical accounting exercises will not help us from the massive overhang of medical expenses and the taxes that will be needed to pay for them. wanting to save on military is fine, but it won't save us.
Holy cow, you just can't get off of this neocon/exxon executives claptrap that bill moyers and the far, far, far, far, far, far left have spewed out for the last eight years. Have you ever read the constitution? There is <i>very little the Fed Gov't should be spending <b>any</b> money on other than defense</i>.
In a recent interview when asked how he would cut back on the federal deficit, Ron Paul said, "I'd start with eliminating spending not authorized by The Constitution". That makes him a "right-wing whack job", right?
The status quo of the US $ as a world reserve and trade currency is being question all over the place... Even MercoSur going to stop using USD's in international transactions and stop using the USD as reference price for their currencies... With the USD not being the currency of world trade, there will be decreasing interest for purchasing of dollars by foreign countries (it probably won't dry to 0 or anything, but demand will likely go down) Add that to the fact that at the pace The treasury is headed they'll soon land themselves a solid AA rating (or worse...) Another point of concern is the levels of liquidity being held by banks (as pointed out by the Mises institute in this articles: http://mises.org/story/3522 http://mises.org/story/3525 Once the damn breaks and all the liquidity gets lent to the public... things might get ugly...
Have you ever read the constitution? There is very little the Fed Gov't should be spending any money on other than defense. I agree 200%. The very idea that the government should provide medical care is strange in some ways, but many decades of liberal rhetoric has transformed us into a selfish herd of children. Many believe they have a right to whatever they want when they want, no matter who it hurts financially. The tipping point is past, current liberals don't give a damn about insolvency and they have enough votes to keep it going- game over.