Joint Forces Command gets the axe

[Voodoochild]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/09/gates-cut-major-military-command-norfolk-officials-say/

[GermanSynergy]

The Dems will cut military spending, but they sure won't cut entitlement spending....... :rolleyes:

There are PLENTY of other areas to trim the fat.....

[parishioner]

The Dems will cut military spending, but they sure won't cut entitlement spending....... :rolleyes:

There are PLENTY of other areas to trim the fat.....

You ain't kidding. http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-12-10-federal-pay-salaries_N.htm

Article describes how there has been an explosion in the number of federal workers earning 6 figure salaries during this recession.

[ForTehNguyen]

dems always think they can make money appear out of nowhere by cutting the military

[Mjolnir]

dems always think they can make money appear out of nowhere by cutting the military

I disagree. They know goddamned well that the Nation and Gov't is bankrupt; they also know that uncontrolled spending will further bankrupt the Nation (i.e., the people) and thrust us into Globalism in a way that makes me cringe... just like the GOP.

Both Parties must be held accountable by an informed, unbiased, Constitutional-loving public.

[Belmont31R]

Our country is a huge fiscal disaster that no one wants to fix because its always someone elses money. The DOD included. They spend 10's of millions on such things as small arms procurement just to scrap the program. Commanche. The DOD wastes billions of years. They pay way too much for the shit they do buy. I always use this example because I have first hand knowledge of it but I was commo, and we had these canvas covers for the antenna heads. Really simple peice of fabric with a zipper. They cost around $130 each. It seems everything DOD buys is vastly overpriced. Then you have Congress getting their mitts in the pie, and causing programs to be super expensive just so some company in their district gets money. We had single pieces of equipment that were hundreds of thousands of dollars that was OLD technology, and they kept buying new ones. Huge bulky pieces of crap that a cell phone did more. We used to setup our network by talking on cell phones, and then once the network was setup we could talk on that. For the price of a basic HMMVW you could buy 2-3 brand new commercial trucks that would be nicer, have more features, and carry more. Then we couldn't even take our equipment outside the wire because it wasn't armored. It has to be put on another truck, and hauled to where we needed it to go.


Yes Obama and Congress has inflated the government rolls. They have greatly increased spending. All they do is spend, and half of it is borrowed money.

Just all the welfare and entitlement programs alone spend more than the gov takes in, and that doesn't even include all the money the states spend or are forced to spend on programs. At the same time they are increasing entitlement spending and there is no money to pay for it except borrowed/printed dollars.


This whole government spending scheme is going to come home to roost one day. We have over 13 trillion to pay back, and we have compounding interest on it. Soon we are going to be paying back almost a trillion dollars a year in debt and interest payments, social security, medicare/medicaid, Obama care, DOD, all these over inflated departments, stimulus spending, etc. The only way to pay for it is huge tax increases, and then we are going to be in a perma recession like Europe has been where 10% unemployment is not uncommon, they are paying 6-10 dollars a gallon of gas, etc. The DOD, and their spending habits are just a symptom of the entire fiasco. Just look at a chart of the Federal budget over the last 100 years. It has been increasing way too fast that our economy cannot pay for it. Thats why they are spending 1.5T in deficit spending now. Try sucking another 1.5-2 trillion a year out of the economy in taxes, and see how that goes. But that money has to come out of the economy at some point anyways. They are just borrowing on the future. Even if you increased taxes to the point spending stayed the same but there was no deficit we still have to pay back the over 13 trillion debt we have. If you paid that back in 20 years that would be another ~600-750 billion in taxes a year because of the debt and interest that compounds every year.


But the people in this country all want what they were "promised". How many people do you think would support cutting SS in half, and only paying out to those who really need it? All the old fogies would be out in the streets protesting because they paid into it their whole lives. Tell all the ghetto rats you are taking their checks away. Tell the DOD you are giving them 100B less a year, and they better shape up. If you take anyones fun ride you'd become the boogey man.

[PrivateCitizen]

In other news, unemployment up by 4900.

So, assume they all get unemployment for a year - year-and-a-half … the cost is $110-$125M. Coupled with loss of capability and this is silly. The only thing that happened here is the spending will now just be by unemployment and social programs and we'll get NOTHING for it.

[variablebinary]

The US military is a very wasteful organization. Some cuts can be a good if executed smartly.

It should not be the first place to seek cuts however.

[GermanSynergy]

The US military is a very wasteful organization. Some cuts can be a good if executed smartly.

It should not be the first place to seek cuts however.

Take from those that leech off the largesse of society before taking it from militayr programs.

[variablebinary]

Take from those that leech off the largesse of society before taking it from militayr programs.

That's a small piece of the puzzle.

We need to roll back the size and cost of the federal government on a whole. There are way too many untouchable bureaucratic agencies at play

Foreign aid should be slashed by 50-75%.

Our tax system should be revised so it creates an incentive to spend for consumers and employers

Eliminate anchor babies from illegals, because it nearly always results in WIC, food stamps, Medicaid and section 8 for people that have paid NOTHING, ZERO, NADA into the system (I feel differently about a person that has worked his whole life, and hit hard times. Those Americans should be helped)

I dont support just cutting welfare or unemployment benefits. It has to be sweeping across the board, or it wont be worthwhile.

[Avenger29]

Our country is a huge fiscal disaster that no one wants to fix because its always someone elses money

This. One of the reasons that I left federal employment was due to the huge waste of taxpayer dollars. I was sick and fed up with it- and what I saw was just a tiny, tiny part. Chainsaw cutting chain dull? Slap a new one on it and throw the old one away. Park truck a few years old and needs a tune up? Buy a new one instead of spending a little money for new parts and service. Visitor center theater needs a new TV? Remodel the entire theater instead of buying a simple TV. Need a contractor to do a project? Rig the contracting process, so that even if another (better) contractor bids lower, your picked favorite wins.

The ****ing idiot that was the head cheese of our park had absolutely no financial common sense when it came to his personal finances. He was 70 grand in the hole, easily. Do you think that jackwagon made anything resembling wise spending choices when it came to taxpayer money?

None of our "leaders" had ethics, either...and that made it all the easier for them to waste massive amounts of funding rather than spend it where it was actually needed and counted...

[Belmont31R]

That's a small piece of the puzzle.

We need to roll back the size and cost of the federal government on a whole. There are way too many untouchable bureaucratic agencies at play

Foreign aid should be slashed by 50-75%.

Our tax system should be revised so it creates an incentive to spend for consumers and employers

Eliminate anchor babies from illegals, because it nearly always results in WIC, food stamps, Medicaid and section 8 for people that have paid NOTHING, ZERO, NADA into the system (I feel differently about a person that has worked his whole life, and hit hard times. Those Americans should be helped)

I dont support just cutting welfare or unemployment benefits. It has to be sweeping across the board, or it wont be worthwhile.




I don't believe in any public assistance unless the person cannot physically or mentally take care of themselves, and only if they have no next of kin that is able to take care of them.


Think about unemployment. People are generally paying around 20-50% of their income into taxes. People would be able to save up a lot more money if they didn't have to pay such high taxes. We are taxed on every single thing we do be it direct or indirect.


The majority of this money goes to people who never put in what they are getting out. Obese people getting disability because they are so fat? It happens. HALF the people in this country have medical care through the government.

If we really looked at the numbers less than 10% of the population should be getting any public assistance.



People really have no idea of the ticking time bomb our country has been placed in by over spending. A lot of people are going to get hurt when their promised money never shows up. All these huge public worker pensions, the debt, the entitlements, welfare. Its ballooning so fast we owe many tens of trillions in obligations we are not going to be able to pay. These states cutting programs, closing parks, etc. That is like a single atom in a drop of water which is in a bucket full of water. Look at CA last year giving out IOU's for tax refunds. When are the people on SS and welfare going to get an IOU instead of a check? This Obama spending can't go on forever. We either cut spending, and start paying on the debt or default on it, and we'll never borrow another dollar as long as any of us are alive. Who's going to take the risk? Loan us trillions, and poof its gone? People have gone to war over much less.



For the foreseeable future we are going to be paying high taxes, living with a depressed economy, and paying out a few trillion a year in entitlement spending, welfare, and all the other waste. Thats how Europe has been for a long time. Our GDP is close to the entire EU, and the EU has 200 million + more people than we do. Each persons average slice of their GDP is much smaller than ours. They got stuck in the same welfare society shit we are reaping now, and they can't afford it either. If you saw the recent G10 meetings the Euro's were talking about financial reform, and cutting spending to bring things back into reality. Our glorious leader was talking about more spending.


If you want to study the model that has been used to bring us to this point look up Keynesian economics. Its what FDR used during the Great Depression, and although we did come out of it we had 2 more smaller depressions after the GD was over. WW2 brought us out of the slump of the 30's. FDR advocated "shovel ready projects" by putting people back to work building things with government money. The Hoover Dam is a prime example. It was built in 1935, and was meant to put people back to work by the government spending money. This economic model promotes lower wages, and government spending to end a depression/recession. Keynesian economics goes hand in hand with socialists because they believe in the power of the state over business, and don't believe private business can revitalize itself without significant government influence. Thats why these idiots in Congress have no problem raising our taxes next year because they don't think WE can turn the economy around without them using our money to do it themselves. However what they are doing is taking money from those who made it, and giving it to those who do not make money. They want to micromanage the recovery with all their dumb programs. The problem with Keynesian economics is that its never worked. Cutting government spending, and lowering taxes has worked. It worked in the early 20's, and led to the Roaring 20's. FDR took over, and instituted Keynesian policies. His entire time as president minus WW2 was an economic slump. Obama is going to be an FDR repeat. Even the digs at the Supreme Court are similar to FDR's war on SCOTUS. Also look up the 2nd bill of rights or economic bill of rights (same thing different names). Tell me that doesn't match Obama's general ideology almost perfectly.

[ThirdWatcher]

I disagree. They know goddamned well that the Nation and Gov't is bankrupt; they also know that uncontrolled spending will further bankrupt the Nation (i.e., the people) and thrust us into Globalism in a way that makes me cringe... just like the GOP.

Both Parties must be held accountable by an informed, unbiased, Constitutional-loving public.

+1 I believe this is the big picture.

[variablebinary]

+1 I believe this is the big picture.

Globalism and "emerging markets" are code words for "American worker takes it in the ass."