How about cutting military spending in half ?

Question

It would save about 250 Billion. With said Billions one could easily fund medicare for the whole nation AND have enough left over to
a) start paying off the national debt
b) give aid to third world countries. Not in the form of direct money, but in the form of helping them to become self-sufficient.

The U.S. military still would be the mightiest on earth and perhaps would have less reason to flex its muscle constantly (if you spend 500 Billion on the military you better use it, otherwise how the hell do you justify it ?)

I asked the question in three categories (Military, Economics and Religion) to see whether, and if so by how much, the answers are different.

Dave_Stark
What have you been smoking ?
If you calculate the Military Budget, interest on past military spending (debt service), extra money spend on the Iraq and Afghanistan war and Veterans benefits, military spending comes to almost 1/2 of the total budget. The 'official" budget forgets to include the last the expenditures in the official chart...

Answer 1

As things currently stand, it would be a bad idea. Our military is already understaffed, underpaid, and underequipped. Until a number of situations change, adding underbudgetted to that list would only make things harder for them.

Now, if you can come up with a way to take care of the reasons we need a large military budget, then it might not be a bad idea, since (as you pointed out) there's plenty of other things we could do with that money. But I hope you'll pardon me not holding my breath.

Answer 2

Actually, the military budget is but a small fraction of the total federal budget, and an even tinier fraction of the national gross domestic product.

The lion's share of the Federal budget goes to "entitlements" programs -- money the Government gives away to those either incapable of taking care of themselves, or too lazy to do so. Look how much money is being spent on Social Security sometime, or Medicare, or corporate welfare, or Farm subsidies, or tobacco products. And it is these programs that will drive the Federal Budget into the ground, not the military.

Suddenly, the military budget doesn't look so bad, does it.

Answer 3

I think we should look at the whole finical issue.

Corruption in military contracting, favoritism and rotten management is a very costly dog, but still, little potatoes, why does congress fund three different military exchange services instead of one for example. Do you know that there are no real finical controls or they are kept hidden, on payments give to contractors working for the government in Iraq?

Why not take on Managed Care, just its infrastructures annual cost, too include upper level salaries, is a waste hole with no bottom. It negatively impacts quality health care and service.
You do not want to even look at the interior design and decorative cost plus maintenance cost that comes out of your insurance payments.

Energy cost? Why haven't we mandated that all buildings be built with a minimum insulation coefficient? That would reduce the huge heating oil requirement, as well as the electrical for air conditioning.

We do not produce TVs, Stereos, Cameras, computers or parts, Cd's or DVD/players. How many of these are in America? We buy them from elsewhere, How do we get that amount of money back into our Cash register? ( In the Trillions)

Military spending, one eighth of the waste pie!

Answer 4

Cutting military spending would be bad. Cutting Iraq spending would be helpful. Especially given last night's Anderson Cooper 360. You can't just cut all military spending. Most of it is going to Iraq and the military bases are getting screwed over. A recent article I read on Yahoo! stated that lots of bases can't afford to buy office supplies for the offices. Just something to think about...

Answer 5

We need a strong military. Do you want 911 to keep happening? That is why we flex our military muscles. If you want to free up money in the government, you need to get rid of the corruption.

Answer 6

that is great and i think if more people are open to this idea we would start to take the world in a whole new direction "one nation under god"

Answer 7

Sounds great to me!