[pianotech] Federal spending (OT!)

[Dean May]

The defense contractors are careful to spread it out so that every county
and voting district gets some of the largesse with parceled out contracts to
tiny machine shops all over the country. 
 
Nearly 750 military installations in some 150 of the planet's 180 countries.
That's the Department of Empire Management, er, Defense.
 
 
 Dean

Dean W May                (812) 235-5272

PianoRebuilders.com    (888) DEAN-MAY

Terre Haute IN 47802

 

  _____  

From: pianotech-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:pianotech-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf
Of David Andersen
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 6:36 PM
To: pianotech at ptg.org
Subject: [pianotech] Federal spending (OT!)


Here's a couple things to look at: 
http://www.truthandpolitics.org/military-relative-size.php#outlays-graph

http://useconomy.about.com/od/fiscalpolicy/p/2008_defense.htm

Military spending has for 50 years been between 50% and 80% of our country's
total yearly discretionary spending. And that doesn't  include the
classified or "black" part of the defense budget, which most experts believe
is at least half again the size of the published total. We're a war empire.
That's the truth. The vast majority of that cash goes into weapons systems
and support. It's by far our country's largest manufacturing sector.

Do some research, kids. The internet is amazing.
DA



On Nov 2, 2010, at 3:16 PM, John Formsma wrote:


Ed, 

I agree that our military spending is way out of control. And that it is out
of control because of our war-mongering. (I even think we should be bringing
all our troops home, and closing our foreign military bases.) 

However, I'm not sure that military spending is larger than social services.
Any data you can cite?

--
JF 


On Tue, Nov 2, 2010 at 2:38 PM, Ed Foote <a440a at aol.com> wrote:



Greetings, 
      
   In this whole discussion, I find it interesting that there is virtually
no mention of the big leak, the hole where the promise of tomorrow is being
poured.  It is not Social Security, it is not medical expense. It is not the
housing crisis.  It is the military budget.  We have a military budget that
is larger than the rest of the world combined, and the Pentagon is screaming
for more.  We have dumped a trillion dollars into the idiotic "wars" ,(which
we, as a nation, endorsed), and there are at least another trillion in
expenses that will come due in the next generation taking care of the
damage.  That is where the vitality of this country has gone. 
  With the money we have spent, we could easily have bought the intelligence
we needed to hunt down every Al-Quida member on the planet and kill them,
quietly. That, however, would not have been dramatic enough to assuage the
gods of war we have in Washington, nor the public's demand for blood
revenge.  So we pay, and our children will pay, and theirs afterward. Our
fear of appearing weak has led us directly into the trap that a
micro-minority of radical zealots laid for us, and like fighting a hydra,
every time we kill one, two more appear. 
    Take a look at the history of the last 500 years and you will see one
nation after another collapse under the weight of military spending, not
entitlements. We are repeating this, and we finally have created an enemy
with no homeland, no definition, and no way to combat. We learned nothing
from 'Nam, and we learned nothing from Russia's attempt in Afghanistan. So
we pay. This is going to be a hard lesson for our progeny, and I don't see
those that caused it even considering apologizing for it. 
        There are only two motivating factors that humans obey: love and
fear.  We have made the huge mistake of the latter, and will have to back up
before we can move forward. 
Regards,


Ed Foote RPT
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html



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