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On the subject of the sequester (sorry I'm late):
Obama's decision to sign off on it in 2011 has, IMO, has turned out to be one of his best decisions so far as president. I agree that targeted budget cuts are more ideal than across-the-board cuts, but the problem is that polls show that Americans overwhelmingly disagree. 95% of Americans support budget cuts, but there's not a single area of the budget that a majority of Americans think should be cut. The only area that comes close to having a majority support is "aid to the world's needy", which is a small subset of the small percentage of the budget we spend on foreign aid (aid to Israel and Pakistani generals doesn't count "aid to the world's needy" in my book.) Basically, the American public wants Congress to cut the budget without singling out any particular area of it.
With the sequester, the American public doesn't perceive the wrath of pennypinchers as being directed towards any one of their favored programs in particular. Also, the nature of the cuts being across-the-board deincentivizes lobbying from special interests, as DOE bureaucrats, arms manufactures, rich farmers, and IRS employees (etc.) all have to compete for the limited "bandwidth" of politicians and the public when complaining. The public has a limited amount of attention, and each agency can only get a small chuck of it when they're all trying to complain at the same time.
BTW, a second benefit of the sequester, besides reducing the deficit, is that it's shown Americans that we CAN make significant budget cuts without negative consequences worthy of popular outrage. Fiscal responsibility won't cause the world to end.
An excellent column on the subject from Will Wilkinson:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/budget-sequestration
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On July 09 2013 01:15 airtown wrote:On the subject of the sequester (sorry I'm late): Obama's decision to sign off on it in 2011 has, IMO, has turned out to be one of his best decisions so far as president. I agree that targeted budget cuts are more ideal than across-the-board cuts, but the problem is that polls show that Americans overwhelmingly disagree. 95% of Americans support budget cuts, but there's not a single area of the budget that a majority of Americans think should be cut. The only area that comes close to having a majority support is "aid to the world's needy", which is a small subset of the small percentage of the budget we spend on foreign aid (aid to Israel and Pakistani generals doesn't count "aid to the world's needy" in my book.) Basically, the American public wants Congress to cut the budget without singling out any particular area of it. With the sequester, the American public doesn't perceive the wrath of pennypinchers as being directed towards any one of their favored programs in particular. Also, the nature of the cuts being across-the-board deincentivizes lobbying from special interests, as DOE bureaucrats, arms manufactures, rich farmers, and IRS employees (etc.) all have to compete for the limited "bandwidth" of politicians and the public when complaining. The public has a limited amount of attention, and each agency can only get a small chuck of it when they're all trying to complain at the same time. BTW, a second benefit of the sequester, besides reducing the deficit, is that it's shown Americans that we CAN make significant budget cuts without negative consequences worthy of popular outrage. Fiscal responsibility won't cause the world to end. An excellent column on the subject from Will Wilkinson: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/07/budget-sequestration
The problem is that, while the public likes to say it wants to be fiscally responsible, when you actually hammer out any specifics whatsoever, the public doesn't like it. You even mention lobbying and try to dismiss it, but there has been massive lobbying efforts to revert how the sequester has effected any one interest, and many of them have been successful because people don't like the idea of "insert private interest here" being cut. Talk of budget cuts and balancing the budget tends to be pretty meaningless.
Not only that, but you mentioned how great it is that we can realize that we can balance a budget and cut spending without horrible effects. However, there are significant portions of the populace that have been negatively effected by the sequester, and it comes at a time when our economy has had and is continuing to have a shitty recovery. Not only this, but if you actually look at the facts, our debt problem isn't nearly as bad as conservatives make it out to be. Our debt is one of the most reasonable out of any developed nation, and this whole "the world's gonna end unless we balance the budget!" talk is just empty rhetoric to galvanize a conservative base to get more votes. The debt shouldn't even be a top-5 concern for public policy at this very moment. Our horrible economic recovery and our shady foreign relations should take a front seat when compared to the "debt problem".
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Wow. 32% of people want to increase the military budget? For the love of God, why?
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On July 09 2013 01:31 Shiori wrote:
Wow. 32% of people want to increase the military budget? For the love of God, why?
They could be pushing their own book 
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I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? ><
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On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? ><
It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest.
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United States43771 Posts
On July 09 2013 01:31 Shiori wrote:
Wow. 32% of people want to increase the military budget? For the love of God, why?
The threat of the Soviet Union returning has been a constant threat ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. The threat of the threat of nuclear war returning has never seemed so threatening.
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On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest.
All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people.
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On July 09 2013 02:17 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 01:31 Shiori wrote:
Wow. 32% of people want to increase the military budget? For the love of God, why? The threat of the Soviet Union returning has been a constant threat ever since the fall of the Soviet Union. The threat of the threat of nuclear war returning has never seemed so threatening.
Amusing!
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On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people.
![[image loading]](http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/usgs_line.php?title=Defense&units=p&size=m&year=1970_2018&sname=US&bar=1&stack=1&col=c&legend=&source=a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_i_a_i_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_e_g_g_g_g_g_g_g&spending0=9.12_8.24_7.65_6.72_6.56_6.73_6.27_5.99_5.71_5.61_6.02_6.19_6.81_6.98_6.84_7.00_7.04_6.76_6.47_6.26_5.90_5.35_5.50_5.16_4.75_4.40_4.04_3.90_3.68_3.56_3.61_3.56_3.97_4.34_4.59_4.76_4.65_4.66_5.11_5.69_5.85_5.83_5.42_5.29_4.89_4.60_4.29_4.07_3.89)
![[image loading]](http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/usgs_line.php?title=Defense&units=f&size=m&year=1970_2018&sname=US&bar=1&stack=1&col=c&legend=&source=a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_i_a_i_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_e_g_g_g_g_g_g_g&spending0=48.40_44.15_41.04_37.78_36.54_33.16_30.79_29.72_28.54_28.51_28.41_28.54_29.71_30.50_31.56_31.19_31.69_31.91_31.02_30.00_27.30_24.20_25.24_24.42_23.02_21.54_20.28_20.31_19.56_19.59_20.06_19.68_20.99_22.41_23.72_24.32_23.43_23.95_24.50_22.60_24.53_24.41_24.05_23.28_22.03_21.10_19.88_19.16_18.36)
from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/
It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low.
Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget.
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On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget.
HAHAHA I like those graphs cause it meant Romney's stupid ass idea to peg defense spending to 4% of GDP would have actually been a spending cut even though he was selling it as an increase.
Just to be bitchy, starting at 1970 is SO cheating. Obviously it's going to make every other year look like small potatoes. And when you compare our defense spending to other countries, it's off the effing charts.
And how could people worry that it's getting low? It's been going up for about a decade? Unless they think we should be sitting at Cold War levels of spending in which case I have little problem calling them xenophobic nutjobs.
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On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. + Show Spoiler +from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget.
Th USA still spends more on Defense than on Education and Welfare and you can understand the people are worrying about it getting to low? Espescially comparing it to the military spending of the rest of the world.
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On July 09 2013 02:41 Klondikebar wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. HAHAHA I like those graphs cause it meant Romney's stupid ass idea to peg defense spending to 4% of GDP would have actually been a spending cut even though he was selling it as an increase. Just to be bitchy, starting at 1970 is SO cheating. Obviously it's going to make every other year look like small potatoes. And when you compare our defense spending to other countries, it's off the effing charts. And how could people worry that it's getting low? It's been going up for about a decade? Unless they think we should be sitting at Cold War levels of spending in which case I have little problem calling them xenophobic nutjobs.
Percentage of GDP wise it isn't way off the charts (but pretty high) but in nominal terms its way ahead of everyone.
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On July 09 2013 02:43 Zaros wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:41 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. HAHAHA I like those graphs cause it meant Romney's stupid ass idea to peg defense spending to 4% of GDP would have actually been a spending cut even though he was selling it as an increase. Just to be bitchy, starting at 1970 is SO cheating. Obviously it's going to make every other year look like small potatoes. And when you compare our defense spending to other countries, it's off the effing charts. And how could people worry that it's getting low? It's been going up for about a decade? Unless they think we should be sitting at Cold War levels of spending in which case I have little problem calling them xenophobic nutjobs. Percentage of GDP wise it isn't way off the charts (but pretty high) but in nominal terms its way ahead of everyone.
If X billion dollars stops terrorists for the majority of the world, why does the U.S. need X^10 to stop those same terrorists?
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On July 09 2013 02:42 Paljas wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. + Show Spoiler +from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. Th USA still spends more on Defense than on Education and Welfare and you can understand the people are worrying about it getting to low? Espescially comparing it to the military spending of the rest of the world.
The US spends about as much on defense as on education. We spend more healthcare (the biggest category) than defense. To your second point, a lot of people think our allies spend too little and we're left picking up the slack.
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On July 09 2013 02:54 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:42 Paljas wrote:On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. + Show Spoiler +from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. Th USA still spends more on Defense than on Education and Welfare and you can understand the people are worrying about it getting to low? Espescially comparing it to the military spending of the rest of the world. The US spends about as much on defense as on education. We spend more healthcare (the biggest category) than defense. To your second point, a lot of people think our allies spend too little and we're left picking up the slack.
We're able to invade and occupy two medium countries simultaneously. A lot of people are proselytes of the military industrial complex.
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On July 09 2013 02:41 Klondikebar wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. HAHAHA I like those graphs cause it meant Romney's stupid ass idea to peg defense spending to 4% of GDP would have actually been a spending cut even though he was selling it as an increase.
I don't know if you noticed, but the graph shows projections dipping below 4%
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On July 09 2013 02:54 JonnyBNoHo wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:42 Paljas wrote:On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. + Show Spoiler +from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. Th USA still spends more on Defense than on Education and Welfare and you can understand the people are worrying about it getting to low? Espescially comparing it to the military spending of the rest of the world. The US spends about as much on defense as on education. We spend more healthcare (the biggest category) than defense. To your second point, a lot of people think our allies spend too little and we're left picking up the slack.
I don't think the US is literally defending the rest of the world and allowing them to skimp on defense. The simple fact is that, honestly, that nobody is really itching to go to war with Italy or Canada or Luxembourg. The US and Britain are the ones who've been getting targeted by terrorists the most, from what I can tell, but even that has nothing to do with "Defense" spending per se, since terrorists are not the same as soldiers or equivalent to being in a state of actual sustained warfare.
I'm not sure why people would think that other people aren't spending enough on defense. What is there to defend against? Seriously, nobody has made overtures of war toward the Western world with any seriousness or with any relevance with respect to their power. It's not like China is gearing up to take over Europe or something.
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On July 09 2013 03:12 sc2superfan101 wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:41 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. HAHAHA I like those graphs cause it meant Romney's stupid ass idea to peg defense spending to 4% of GDP would have actually been a spending cut even though he was selling it as an increase.
I don't know if you noticed, but the graph shows projections dipping below 4%
Yeah, projections in the future. Currently it would be a cut. When Romney was running it would have been a pretty severe cut. I did notice thanks, but I can also read the X-axis of a graph.
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On July 09 2013 03:16 Shiori wrote:Show nested quote +On July 09 2013 02:54 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:42 Paljas wrote:On July 09 2013 02:31 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 02:19 Klondikebar wrote:On July 09 2013 02:04 JonnyBNoHo wrote:On July 09 2013 01:38 Shiori wrote:
I only ask cause I'm not American lol. I thought the military budget was frighteningly high, but I guess if people want to increase it it must have some perceived lack or something? >< It's high, but in line with historical norms. Polls like this don't really mean anything other than what people's gut instinct and opinion are on a topic. For any individual budget item (military included) there's always a cohort of people that make money from it so they'll support it just out of self interest. All of the info I've seen on U.S. military spending is pretty outrageous. Especially with the last 2 wars we've fought and the money we've pissed away from 9/11. The dumb part isn't so much the numbers, it's the percentage of government spending it's becoming. You'd think if we HAD to have government spending we'd want to reduce the amount we spend on intentional violence and increase the amount we spent on at least trying to get healthcare to people. + Show Spoiler +from http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/It's high and I'd like it lower, but I can see how some people worry that it's getting low. Edit: In case it's too hard to read: first graph is military spending as % of GDP, second is % of federal budget. Th USA still spends more on Defense than on Education and Welfare and you can understand the people are worrying about it getting to low? Espescially comparing it to the military spending of the rest of the world. The US spends about as much on defense as on education. We spend more healthcare (the biggest category) than defense. To your second point, a lot of people think our allies spend too little and we're left picking up the slack. I don't think the US is literally defending the rest of the world and allowing them to skimp on defense. The simple fact is that, honestly, that nobody is really itching to go to war with Italy or Canada or Luxembourg. The US and Britain are the ones who've been getting targeted by terrorists the most, from what I can tell, but even that has nothing to do with "Defense" spending per se, since terrorists are not the same as soldiers or equivalent to being in a state of actual sustained warfare. I'm not sure why people would think that other people aren't spending enough on defense. What is there to defend against? Seriously, nobody has made overtures of war toward the Western world with any seriousness or with any relevance with respect to their power. It's not like China is gearing up to take over Europe or something.
Too many conservatives are stuck in arm chair general mode, and imagine that you need a big military or else you look weak or some other rubbish like that informed by reading too much 19th century European history. And of course the defense industry is big business so they continue to encourage this view.
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EPT
