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The empiricist will change his opinion in light of contrary evidence. The ideologue will retain his opinion despite contrary evidence.

It's sheer knee-slapping comedy when Bush voters complain about federal spending.

Let's see here....Are you telling me now that you don't support the war in Afgan?
I know for a fact you don't support the war in Iraq.

But with that being said....War in Iraq and Afgan. since 2001=762 billion 7 years
Cost of Social programs in 2007(not counting Social Security)=680 billion in one year

Don't get me wrong I think we should get out of Iraq too but not to our nation's detriment by leaving a mess.

I think the issue is: Can we afford to continue this "War on Terrorism" at this level of spending?

If we bankrupt ourselves Bin-Ladin will truly have won.

Not really. I can think of plenty of things I don't want my money spent on, war or no.

What's comedy is the tax dollars you leftwingnuts want to throw at issues instead of addressing the root of those issues and correcting them and all the name-calling and accusations anyone has to endure at your hands for disagreeing with you.

By the by ... to date ... what is the total of Clinton's little Eurpoean war you never hear about cost us in tax dollars? You know, the one that hasn't ended yet?

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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing” - Edmund Burke

Quote:

Originally Posted by Warner I think the issue is: Can we afford to continue this "War on Terrorism" at this level of spending? If we bankrupt ourselves Bin-Ladin will truly have won.

I think the United States and its allies should create a special force consisting of soldiers from non Islamic countries specially to combat terror in every part of the planet. I know we have NATO & ISAF etc but what the world needs right now is its very own anti-terror army. Countries like U.K , U.S , Australia ,Germany, Israel ,& India can contribute towards the budget and manpower of this army.We have enough terrorism in Kashmir where there is a bloodbath almost everyday.

This will reduce U.S military spending.Personally , I think this would work. Because we have so many countries who are a part of this force terrorism can be curbed in almost every continent.

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"You know the world is going crazy when the best rapper is a white guy, the best golfer is a black guy,the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese, the Swiss hold the America's Cup, France is accusing the U.S. of arrogance, Germany doesn't want to go to war, and the three most powerful men in America are named Bush, Dick, and Colon.
--Comedian Chris Rock

Let's not forget about the 845 billion that Obama has proposed to subsidize global poverty through the UN at taxpayers expense.

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Learn to labour and to wait -- Longfellow

I see the point you are making on expenditures, BOTH of which I believe need to be much lower, but as for the last thing you said...

When exactly do you think it will ever NOT be a mess in Iraq?

I mean, even if it somehow made a miraculous turnaround and violence became almost non-existent...that would obviously be our cue to leave...what if the warring sects in that country decided to start their shit again after we left, now that the US military isn't there to strong-arm them anymore?

I mean, the violence in that country may NEVER go away now that we probably irreversibly distrupted the veritable "harmony" they once had there.

Short of dividing that country up into 3 parts, I think we completely ruined the political stability within there.

At some point, you just gotta let it go and move on. What better time then RIGHT NOW, when we're teetering on the brink of bankruptcy in this country. A mistake is a mistake. We simply cannot afford it financially, militarily, politically, or any other "ly" you can think of, anymore.

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"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

-Ronald Reagan

It's this type of failed thinking that cause terrorism in general. What you're talking about is the problem, not the solution.

Educate yourself

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"It is seldom that Liberty of any kind is lost all at once" - David Hume

I don't discriminate; I hate both major political parties equally.

http://www.jeffwartman.com

You can't combat a tactic. Terrorism is a tactic. It can be such a microcosm, that it's impossible to rid the world of it. It can exist in the tiniest of houses, in the most remote locations in the world, and from there it can spread like a virus, even if you've eradicated the largest portions of it.

It mainly exists because it's the only tactic many politically disgruntled people around the world can use to take on countries with large militaries.

The more we keep pissing these people off by intervening on their holy land, and strong-arming them and their families, the more terrorism is going to spread, and be used.

It'll never be beaten. It's been used for millenia. All you can really do is cut back on the intervention, and secure your OWN country.

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"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."

-Ronald Reagan

First off, I believe the war in Iraq was justified. Ok, but I'm not in here debating the justification of the war. I believe you could go under the thread "Bush lied...." and see how I feel about the war. But if we look at the spending on "both" wars on terror they could cost us over 700 billion dollars(through this fiscal year). Yes this war will probably take some time before it is over. Understood. My point is that social spending never ends...it goes on and on and on....I'm sure you get the point. We should be more concerned with a spending that encourages further spending. For example, if we don't address the long term problem of poverty and just throw money at short term solutions then that will be the crux that seals this country going bankrupt. Our government would be better served to throw money at educating and employing our citizens than throwing money at anti-working policies....foodstamps,welfare,low income housing, medicaid...is that enough for you? If our government helped employ and educate our citizenary then that would grow the tax base not take from the tax pie....understand??

We should tell the Iraqi government, that they have to get their act together. We should set strict performance schedules, in other words your country has to field x number of soliders to take over security or we will take x number of dollars and benefits from aide packages. We should set our withdrawal of troops, when U.S. commanders have certified their newly trained security forces. This would be a phased withdrawal that would still take a lot of time to execute, but I believe this would provide the best chance of succeeding. Obviously, this is only the military side of the conflict. We have to find a way that the Shia's and Shittes can co-exist. That's the huge problem in Iraq not necessarily the military solution. Our troops have done a great job in restoring peace in Iraq recently. I will get back with you on the political solution.LOL

I meant the shias and the sunnis co-existing

The justification for the war in Iraq was what...............Saddam was a baaaaad man,bzzzzt, I'd say that what he proved in his tactics, they were probably justified to stop worse actions in his society, which are happening everyday, that we really understand NOTHING ABOUT and have NO control over, that the bleeding heart idiots can't begin to control nearly as affectively..................we've created anarchy.............unless that was the underlying plan anyhow to steal resources while everybody runs around killing eachother.

NOTHING deserves money thrown at it without first figuring out where TF WE'RE GOING.....................government jobs jobs jobs montra IS BULLSHIT and hard working families are collecting social service funds to eat, STAY WARM and keeping their kids healthy.

HOW TF can our gubment employ everyone,gubment jobs PRODUCE NOTHING that adds anything to the GNP or the wealth and value of this nation, they don't have a clue how to do their own jobs effectively now.

They helped in the ruination of our industial base, which was what ran the political taxation blackhole that has fallen apart and we have college gradeates tending bar and flippin' flippin' burgers on the side so they can take their kids to the doctor when they're sick and pay the mortgages on the cars they drive. THE GUBMENT has no clue OBVIOUSLY HOW TO STOP THE BLEEDING except to take us to war on pissant regimes like we're quickly becoming...................

Kids in my state are forced to take regency (college prep) courses whether they have the brains to do it or not, which retards and holds back the ones that do. So they lose and are cheated of a complete education if they don't do well, because vocational training is not prioritized anymore to train the ones that can't make the mental grade to be in the watercooler grabass geek crowd.............which is creating the scenario that it's not a matter of americans NOT WANTING TO DO THE JOB................THEY NO LONGER CAN DO THE JOBS FROM LACK OF CORRECT TRAINING!!!!!

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A wink's as good as a nod to a BLIND MAN ! :usa:

Your figures are deceptive. You are confusing the words "Social Programs" with "Entitlements". A huge portion of the Entitlements budget is Federal pensions - mostly military pensions. Of the US fed budget, even under Clinton, only about 4-6% (depending on what you include) went for what are traditionally considered "Social Programs" not counting Medicare and SS (which is funded separately), and that number is smaller today.

So I suppose what you really want is to reduce military pensions?

Here's a diagram showing the 2006 US Budget, not counting the additional "supplemental" spending for the War:



As I think can be clearly seen, the interest on the debt is the big concern.