Originally Posted By Beaumandy <<Yes. For the FY05 Budget, we spent 5 times more on national defense than on domestic social programs.>> This does not sound like any numbers I have ever heard. Source please. We spend a lot less per dollar on this war than wars past.
Originally Posted By Beaumandy <<How is the ACLU against Sunday School? >> If you still think the aCLU is around to protect your civil rights and that they are some do good group then you are totally clueless and ignorant about who they are and what they want to do to America. If you want socialism and even communism, the removal of free religious expression, attacks on family values, attacks on our ability to protect ourselves from terrorists, feel free to support the scumbags at the ACLU. I know Ike wants to be a ACLU attorney when he grows up, but we expect that.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh <Was it really because of ACLU action?> Not entirely, of course. But they definitely had a hand in it.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj << This does not sound like any numbers I have ever heard. Source please. >> www.whitehouse.gov
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Originally Posted By Beaumandy mrichmond, I can't find anywhere on the whitehouse link any evidence to back up your claim regarding spending. I think you pulled the number out of the air and are pushing yet another myth. Can you tell me how much we should spend on national defense vs social programs if you were king?
Originally Posted By imadisneygal On page 117 of this document it lists the outlay of budget by percent for FY 2005 and other years. In other areas of the document it lists the outlay in millions of dollars. This link might help anyone who thinks we spend a lot on social programs as compared to the military. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2007/pdf/hist.pdf" target="_blank">http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/ budget/fy2007/pdf/hist.pdf</a>
Originally Posted By mrichmondj << Can you tell me how much we should spend on national defense vs social programs if you were king? >> I can tell you that we are dumping a lot of money in the name of national defense into worthless defense contracts that don't protect our citizens in the least little bit. Pare the fat from the national defense budget and stop pandering to the defense contractor lobby. That will go a long way toward freeing up funds to be spent elsewhere -- including an end to deficit spending. Want an example? The DOD has switched to an expensive new ID card for all its uniformed and non-uniformed personnel. This card has computer chips, bar codes, holograms, pictures, and about a dozen technologies embedded. Some slick card salesman tricked the DOD into starting a program that costs about $30 a card to issue these things. I've been carrying my card for 3 years now (actually 3 of them, since they wear out and need replaced every year). In that time, I've never swiped it, scanned it, or otherwise used a single piece of the expensive technology. The old card cost about $2 to issue out. The new card program is a billion dollar scam for the smart card industry and does nothing to help us fight the war on terror. Your tax dollars at work.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh Defense spending is only about 20% of total federal spending. Add in state and local spending, and we spend a lot more on social programs than our military.
Originally Posted By cape cod joe What's the percent for other countries Douglas? China, Japan, etc. I hate to waste the 100 bill on Iraq when our schools here in Sandwich don't even have enough teachers. You can see why Iraq should take care of Iraq and not us! We can't afford it. I'm starting to believe in "military" isolationism only. We could put over 100 bill a year into OUR country, i.e. border defense etc rather that frivlously throwing it into the mideast cesspool of hate and violence.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal "Defense spending is only about 20% of total federal spending." According to the page I saw in the report from Whitehouse.gov it reported that almost 49% of the budget is spent on defense. Am I reading it wrong? P.S. This is a serious question, not a challenge to your assertion.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj ^^ You are reading it correctly. However, there are two different ways to look at the budget. In one method, only discretionary spending is analyzed. Discretionary spending is the money appropriated by Congress to pay for the operation of our government, military, etc. There is also spending allocated to entitlement such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid. Congress doesn't approriate these funds since they come from separate payroll taxes. Accounting for only discretionary spending, the military budget takes up 49%. If you lump in Social Security and Medicare in with the rest of the budget, military spending accounts for about 20%.
Originally Posted By Dirk_D_from_Oregon To defend the ALCU on the basis that they occasionally do things that are in the best interests of the masses is like the idiots in New York that Defended John Gotti because he occasionally threw parties in his neighborhood with fireworks. Just do some simple math. Put all the positive things this dangerous organization does on one side of a scale and then put the negatave/dangerous things it does on the other. Thank you.
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Originally Posted By mrichmondj <<< The question is mrichmond, how much do you think we should spend on our national defense since this seems to bother you a lot? >>> I really don't have a huge issue with how much we spend, but rather how we spend it. Turning over billions of dollars in our defense budget to the likes of Halliburton, General Dynamics, EDS, Northrop Grumman, etc. so that they can build giant Taj Mahal monuments to themselves at the corporate headquarters and not produce weapon systems that defend a single American is a national disgrace.
