Re: Defense Spending


"Jean Smith" <gotermite@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gotermite-EB2C9B.13094421072007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In article <13a46ok1ueecna0@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"John Galt" <whoisjohngalt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I find this quite disturbing.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/07/21/ea
rmarking_the_war_machine/

Comment - Why do we not ever question the huge amounts of money being
spent
on the military? The above article reports this:

"The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute last year reported
that the United States is now responsible for just under half of the
entire
planet's trillion-dollar military spending. No other nation accounts for
more than 5 percent of the world's military spending."

Comment -- Do we really need to spend half of the entire globe's defense
spending just to be "safe"? I hardly think so. Do we not have other
pressing
needs? For comparison, John Edwards' entire universal heath care
proposal,
which many keep saying we can't afford, is estimated to cost only
$150B --
23% of the defense budget. (Keep in mind that defense of the homeland
against terrorism is mostly found in the CIA's and Homeland Securities
budget, not the DODs).

Of course, the intutive response is to blame the current Admin and their
adventures for all this. The article begs to differ:

"Four of the top five "earmarkers" were not Republican hawks but centrist
and liberal Democrats. Levin led the way with 44 earmarks. Clinton was
second with 26. Reed was fourth with 23, one behind Republican John
Warner
of Virginia. In fifth place was Charles Schumer of New York with 21. When
asked if she saw any change in defense earmark behavior since the
Democrats
took back the House and the Senate, senior analyst Laura Peterson of the
Taxpayers for Common Sense said over the telephone, "No."
More proof the swamp is still full is the fact that only four of the top
10
senators in defense campaign contributions in the 2006 election cycle
were
Republicans. According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics,
Democrats Kennedy, Clinton, Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Dianne
Feinstein of California, Bill Nelson of Florida, and
Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut collected 60
percent of the $1.4 million the industry lavished among the top 10.

Comment - So, we have clear collusion between both parties to keep the
military industrial complex moving. Why? Well, the article proposes a
possibility:

"The United States is also roughly tied with Russia in exporting arms to
the
rest of the world, together accounting for 60 percent of the total. The
World Policy Institute, an independent arms proliferation watchdog group,
reported in 2005 that the United States transferred arms to 18 of the 25
countries in active conflicts. It also reported that 20 of the 25 nations
that received arms from the United States in 2003 were classified as
undemocratic or as having a poor human rights record by our own State
Department."

Comment - So, our defense contractors get all their R*D costs paid for by
DOD contracts, and then have product to sell for which the cost of goods
sold is heavily subsidized. An excellent business model.

There's probably some value in linking to the author's bio:

https://bostonglobe.com/newsroom/Editorial-Opinion/jackson.stm

My recommendation: Slice the defense budget in half. That's puts the
budget
back in line with where it was in 2004, in real dollars. Implement an
Edwards-style private-sector-driven universal health care plan and take
care
of that matter. Take the remaining 180B and cut taxes with it.

JG

Can't we count on anyone to like us?

Have you put this issue up for the Youtube debate?

Not sure what you're referring to. Got a link?

JG

--
Hunter S. Thompson RIP http://takeabullet.com/films.html
Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him - Christopher Lee
Op-Ed Columnist: A Vice President Without Borders, Bordering on Lunacy
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/climate-change/dn11651


.

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