How to Cut the Military Budget

[RDD_1210]

Good read with an actual plan instead of hypotheticals.

Lawrence Korb: Cutting the Pentagon by $1 trillion - Jan. 5, 2011

Excerpts:
U.S. defense spending, in inflation adjusted terms, is higher than at any time since the end of World War II. Over the past decade, the U.S. share of global military spending has risen from one third to one half. The United States now spends six times as much as China, the country with the next biggest budget.

Defense is the third largest area of the federal budget, consuming 23% of the total and 55% of the discretionary portion.

 

[Oddball]

You could get a good way there by closing the scores of overseas bases where the war has been over for decades.

Now, lets get to applying the same machete to do-gooder domestic social welfare programs.

 

[RDD_1210]

You could get a good way there by closing the scores of overseas bases where the war has been over for decades.

Now, lets get to applying the same machete to do-gooder domestic social welfare programs.

Yeah, he mentioned that in his article. Why do we need 150,000 troops throughout Europe?

 

[Vanquish]

Here we go with the political stalemate.

Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "What?"
Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "But cut what?"

Seriously though. There has to be SOME defense spending that can be cut without Republicans saying "youuu don't luv our kuntry! we need to stay Kuntry Strong!" This would be a show of good faith that the two parties CAN work together...and should be met by Dems offering up one of their own sacred cows to cut more fat from.

It won't happen though. The party in power never wants "to be the bigger man". When the power shifts...no matter which way...the newly empowered thinks they can now do whatever. That applies to Dems AND republicans.

 

[Oddball]

Here we go with the political stalemate.

Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "What?"
Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "But cut what?"

Not quite...

Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "The military!"
Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "The military!"

But don't even utter a whisper about reducing the baseline increases, let alone propose actual cuts, in spending for their beloved domestic socialistic welfare state.

 

[Darkwind]

Designate a single base in each of 12 regions around the world as our forward operations and close every base besides these.

Withdraw from NATO and force Europe and Asia to defend themselves. You want our help, you pay us up front before we send a single plane.

Lets see how solvent these nations remain when they have to spend for their own defense.

For every dollar taken from the Defense budget, 3 dollars must be take from entitlement programs. These dollars are to be taken FIRST, then cut defense.

Apply all savings directly to principle payments on the DEBT until such time as the debt is paid off. Then rewrite the tax code and reduce taxes from the existing levels to levels that promote economic growth.

Teach our children in schools that government has no money. That it must confiscate money from people in order to do business. Also teach them that the country is a much better and prosperous place when people are in charge and government is a necessary evil but one which much be kept in check.

 

[Vanquish]

I dont think you want the rest of the world (or even a large portion) to go insolvent. That'd be nuts and destructive for us. I do agree, however, that if they were pained to the point of learning some gratitude for what we do for them...that would be great.

Your 1 to 3$ ratio is arbitrary. Why 3? Why not 5$ or why not just 1 for 1? And why does it matter when the money is taken. You can't necessarily time such things.

I do agree that we need to stop being the world police. Right now. This instant.

 

[VaYank5150]

You could get a good way there by closing the scores of overseas bases where the war has been over for decades.

Now, lets get to applying the same machete to do-gooder domestic social welfare programs.

Yeah, he mentioned that in his article. Why do we need 150,000 troops throughout Europe?

WE don't. The European economy depends on them now though and somehow we get stuck paying the bill for it. Just my humble opinion, of course.

 

[High_Gravity]

Who needs the Military? lets just have the Militias protect us.

 

[Oddball]

Militias have some problems uniformly building and maintaining the forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings (i.e. airplane hangars, even though airplanes didn't exist then), as provided for in Article 1, Section 8.

 

[M14 Shooter]

Good read with an actual plan instead of hypotheticals.

Lawrence Korb: Cutting the Pentagon by $1 trillion - Jan. 5, 2011

Excerpts:
U.S. defense spending, in inflation adjusted terms, is higher than at any time since the end of World War II. Over the past decade, the U.S. share of global military spending has risen from one third to one half. The United States now spends six times as much as China, the country with the next biggest budget.

Defense is the third largest area of the federal budget, consuming 23% of the total and 55% of the discretionary portion.

This wont be all that hard to shoot down.

Total Fed spending FY2009: $3518.2B
Total DOD speding FY2009: $655.8B = 18.64%

Historical Budget Data

 

[High_Gravity]

Militias have some problems uniformly building and maintaining the forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings (i.e. airplane hangars, even though airplanes didn't exist then), as provided for in Article 1, Section 8.

I know I was just kidding, the Militias are a joke for the most part.

 

[VaYank5150]

Good read with an actual plan instead of hypotheticals.

Lawrence Korb: Cutting the Pentagon by $1 trillion - Jan. 5, 2011

Excerpts:
U.S. defense spending, in inflation adjusted terms, is higher than at any time since the end of World War II. Over the past decade, the U.S. share of global military spending has risen from one third to one half. The United States now spends six times as much as China, the country with the next biggest budget.

Defense is the third largest area of the federal budget, consuming 23% of the total and 55% of the discretionary portion.

This wont be all that hard to shoot down.

Total Fed spending FY2009: $3518.2B
Total DOD speding FY2009: $655.8B = 18.64%

Historical Budget Data

I think you are leaving out Discretionary Spending. Let's look at 2010:

Discretionary spending in FY 2010 was $1.39 trillion, or 38% of total spending. More than half ($844 billion) was security spending, which includes the Department of Defense, overseas contingency programs and Homeland Security.

Discretionary Federal Budget - What is the 2011 Discretionary Federal Budget

 

[Oddball]

Militias have some problems uniformly building and maintaining the forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings (i.e. airplane hangars, even though airplanes didn't exist then), as provided for in Article 1, Section 8.

I know I was just kidding, the Militias are a joke for the most part.

No, they're not a joke...They have their place in a well-rounded national DEfense.

Unfortunately, that place is not within the auspices of the federal DoD.

 

[M14 Shooter]

Good read with an actual plan instead of hypotheticals.

Lawrence Korb: Cutting the Pentagon by $1 trillion - Jan. 5, 2011

Excerpts:
U.S. defense spending, in inflation adjusted terms, is higher than at any time since the end of World War II. Over the past decade, the U.S. share of global military spending has risen from one third to one half. The United States now spends six times as much as China, the country with the next biggest budget.

Defense is the third largest area of the federal budget, consuming 23% of the total and 55% of the discretionary portion.

This wont be all that hard to shoot down.

Total Fed spending FY2009: $3518.2B
Total DOD speding FY2009: $655.8B = 18.64%

Historical Budget Data

I think you are leaving out Discretionary Spending. Let's look at 2010:

The point is that you cannot cut $1T in spending when $655B was spent.

 

[DiamondDave]

Review and scrutinize existing and future contracts... cut off payment to all contractors and contract firms who do not meet up to requirements and benchmarks... make different approval requirements for future projects and thoroughly analyze the details of the costs listed in the bids/invoices

There is a start that will save a lot that does not hinder our troops and that does not hinder our efforts in continued advances that keep us the top military without any question

 

[RDD_1210]

This wont be all that hard to shoot down.

Total Fed spending FY2009: $3518.2B
Total DOD speding FY2009: $655.8B = 18.64%

Historical Budget Data

I think you are leaving out Discretionary Spending. Let's look at 2010:

The point is that you cannot cut $1T in spending when $655B was spent.

Did you even read the article? The proposal is over 10 years. Not 1.

 

[VaYank5150]

I think you are leaving out Discretionary Spending. Let's look at 2010:

The point is that you cannot cut $1T in spending when $655B was spent.

Did you even read the article? The proposal is over 10 years. Not 1.

Of course not. Rush's talking points didn't cover any 10 year plans...come on, now...

 

[M14 Shooter]

Defense spending can be cut to $0 and we'd still have a ~$900B deficit. People who look to cutting defense to address the deficit really arent interested in addressing the deficit, they just want to cut the military.

Federal spending can ONLY be effectively addressed by significant cuts in entitlement spendng -- spending that accounts for 60% of all federal spending. FY2008 to FY2009 entitlement spending grew by $500B, a figure that exceeds 75% of TOTAL defense spending. FY2009 Entitlement spending ALONE exceeded TOTAL availabe revenue by over $125B.

Historical Budget Data

 

[shintao]

Here we go with the political stalemate.

Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "What?"
Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "But cut what?"

Not quite...

Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "The military!"
Repubs say "Cut!"
Dems say "The military!"

But don't even utter a whisper about reducing the baseline increases, let alone propose actual cuts, in spending for their beloved domestic socialistic welfare state.

We have already cut domestic spending. Your turn.