07-25-2019, 09:25 AM
John, you have to get rid of this text editor, It's only 30 years out of date! No one, and I mean NO ONE, uses fixed line length texting anymore. HTML -- even in its infancy -- has always used text wrapping.
OK, fair enough. I'll accept your self characterization as definitive, because everyone gets to be who they wish to be.
Cutting defense would be wise on two fronts, one in your wheelhouse. Starting there, no nation state can be effective if it's unable to self finance, and we're already at the point that self finance of the massive debt we have makes that questionable. Let's not add to the problem. Second, there is no justification for the spending, based solely on results. Are we getting anything close to the value of the money spent? I doubt it. That's unquestionable in the contracting realm, where it's easy to just OK every cost overrun or missed commitment. The defense budget is simply larded to the point it's defeating its own purpose. That' needs to be addressed, and no time is better than the present.
As far as spending on social programs, they have one redeeming virtue that defense spending lacks: the money is put back into the economy quickly and efficiently. The poor spend their money. The rich, and by extension large corporations, tend to horde their wealth. Worse, the products they create and the services they perform are isolated from the economy, and only benefit the providers. No one, to my knowledge, is in the market for an F-35 or a guided missile cruiser.
And finally, your guilting me and others on making the nation less safe is a joke. China has no interest in starting a war with us. They want to dominate the Pacific Rim and what remains of the Third World. This they are doing thorough their Belt and Road initiative, not by threatening war. If there is any potential risk of war, its miscalculation by the world's chest beaters, and our defense budget has zero impact on that. More to the point, our ability to respond is not enhanced by more spending either.
(07-24-2019, 08:06 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote: ** 24-Jul-2019 Liberals and cutting the deficit
(07-24-2019, 01:55 PM)David Horn Wrote: > Except for the very real issue: cutting taxes has always created more debt, Kennedy's cut of top rates from 90% to 70% being the sole exception. And I thought you conservative types like to cut spending to cut the deficit. Is military spending sacrosanct? It shouldn't be, considering how miserable a job of budget management DoD has done for decades.
I don't know why you're shouting at me. You just quoted me as saying that the belief that cutting taxes reduces the deficit is delusional. So I agreed with you.
OK, fair enough. I'll accept your self characterization as definitive, because everyone gets to be who they wish to be.
(07-24-2019, 08:06 PM)John J. Xenakis Wrote:(07-24-2019, 01:55 PM)David Horn Wrote: > And why, in God's name, do we need annual spending on "defense" exceeding the combined spending of the next seven or eight nations combined? Is DoD that wasteful?
We're headed for a world war with the other side led by China. So that would be one reason, in God's name, why we need spending on the military.
You make the standard leftist claim that cutting the military budget would cut the deficit.
Even a leftist can understand that the deficit would not be cut. If the military budget were cut, then Democrats and the left would immediately demand that all that money go into buying votes for Democrats .... errr ... I mean spending on social programs, social workers, Planned Parenthood, labor unions, and so forth.
In fact, cutting the military budget would actually increase the deficit. The reason is that Democrats and the left would demand to spend the available money on new entitlements. Those entitlements would grow exponentially, cause the deficit to grow exponentially. So cutting the military budget would only increase the deficit -- and also would lead to Chinese victory.
I would say that I hope that the first Chinese nuclear missile strikes whatever town you live in, since you deserve it, but actually what I really hope is that it will strike where I live, and hopefully kill me quickly and painlessly.
Cutting defense would be wise on two fronts, one in your wheelhouse. Starting there, no nation state can be effective if it's unable to self finance, and we're already at the point that self finance of the massive debt we have makes that questionable. Let's not add to the problem. Second, there is no justification for the spending, based solely on results. Are we getting anything close to the value of the money spent? I doubt it. That's unquestionable in the contracting realm, where it's easy to just OK every cost overrun or missed commitment. The defense budget is simply larded to the point it's defeating its own purpose. That' needs to be addressed, and no time is better than the present.
As far as spending on social programs, they have one redeeming virtue that defense spending lacks: the money is put back into the economy quickly and efficiently. The poor spend their money. The rich, and by extension large corporations, tend to horde their wealth. Worse, the products they create and the services they perform are isolated from the economy, and only benefit the providers. No one, to my knowledge, is in the market for an F-35 or a guided missile cruiser.
And finally, your guilting me and others on making the nation less safe is a joke. China has no interest in starting a war with us. They want to dominate the Pacific Rim and what remains of the Third World. This they are doing thorough their Belt and Road initiative, not by threatening war. If there is any potential risk of war, its miscalculation by the world's chest beaters, and our defense budget has zero impact on that. More to the point, our ability to respond is not enhanced by more spending either.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
