So another thread has gotten me thinking... if everyone here had to take a position in the government, who would they be? President: Shooter Vice President: PapaG Secretary of State: maxiep Secretary of the Treasury: huevonkiller Secretary of Defense: bendavis503 Attorney General: Denny Crane Secretary of Agriculture: 3RA1N1AC Secretary of Labor: MARIS61 Secretary of Health: barfo Secretary of Education: crandc Secretary of Homeland Security: EL PRESIDENTE
those do seem better. although half of those I did seriously and the other half was because of irony/comedy... guess which ones
don't feel bad for me. Like I've said, the military has been cutting back each of the last 3 years and has a couple "doomsday" scenarios. Unfortunately for those who are hoping for it, we're going to be in AFG for at least another 25 months. And the equipment/airplanes/ships that have been run ragged for the last decade (much less the ships that are nearing their end-of-life from the Reagan buildups) will need to be replaced and/or fixed, so the cuts aren't coming from there. The cuts will come from new programs (hence Boeing defense and Lockheed and Raytheon laying off lots of mgmt, and the unions will decide which of the engineers and machinists will go), from drawdowns (specifically in the Army, reserve and National Guard) of people and cuts in things like COLA, moves, raises and quality-of-life programs (like DODDS schools, etc). Good-sized unemployment, with little change in our global mission. The President's already set those. And I don't think the President told Patty Murray to not do her job. I think it's just a bonus that came when she got elected as committee co-chair with Hensarling.
A trillion dollar cut to the military budget is going to leave a mark. At least Big Bird is still alive, though.
Entitlements dwarf that number, and they aren't jobs. Whatever, though. Tax everyone until the bitch collapses.
It's 200% the size of Reagan budgets, and 150% the size of pre 9/11 budget. As a % of the budget doesn't matter anymore. As you rightly point out, SS and Medicare will grow to dwarf defense spending. The only spending that will keep up is interest on the debt. A % of GDP based on historical measures isn't a good way to look at it, either. Pre WW II, we spent 1% or 2%. Post WW II, a high (6%) pct of GDP made sense because of the Cold War. Once the Berlin Wall and the USSR fell, Bush and Cheney went about collecting the "Peace Dividend," or base closing commission. Defense spending did fall to 4% of GDP. Feel free to make the case we need Cold War levels of spending to defend ourselves from terrorists. Seems to me their whole scheme of things is asymmetry - no stealth bomber is going to stop guys with box cutters from turning passenger planes into missiles.
