Reply #22: Why doesn't ANYONE, left or right talk about where the real savings are??? [View All]

There is no necessary long term budgetary crisis. Once we cease spending $300-$450 billion a year on the military, there is no budget crisis whatsoever.

Why do they assume that the saving must come in cuts in entitlements or hikes in taxes and assume that we have to continue to spend as much on the military as the rest of the world combined?

After the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a show on PBS by retired high level generals and admirals. I think it was called American's Defense Monitor. They constantly and unanimously emphasized that the defense budget in the post Soviet world should be around $30 billion, rather than $300 billion.

Then George Bush I created our new enemy, Sadam, and 90% defense cuts and post cold war demobilization were off the table. Although Clinton made some progress, his catastrophic early mis-strategizing over military issues made him drop the "peace dividend" like a hot potato and of course Darth Vader Cheney and the idiot boy king have convinced the public that they need to spend trillions on defense with their mythical "war that lasts a generation" against terrrrr.

But the reality is, there is no reason whatsoever for a defense budget in excess of about $60 billion in todays dollars, which would free up something like $1.5 trillion over five years.