"Califbill" wrote in message
m...


wrote in message
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On Thu, 7 Oct 2010 23:55:58 -0700, "Califbill"
wrote:



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On Thu, 7 Oct 2010 10:48:17 -0700, "nom=de=plume"
wrote:

What????? It's about $1M/year/troop. I think you missed something
somewhere...
I am just quoting the number that is floating around CNN and MSNBC
this week.

The $1m a year is DoD overall and includes that soldier painting rocks
white outside an officer's club in Arkansas and a sailor working at
the Base Exchange in Norfolk

And how much of the DOD budget is pork of non DOD spending? the first
Supplemental spending bill for Iraq was something like 24% pork. I have
said for years to get us out of most of Europe and a lot of other lands.
Japan, until they decided to spend excessively like we are presently
doing,
was doing really well as their total cost for Civil Defense was only
about
6% of GDP. That included Fire, Police, National Guard, Coast Guard, etc.
Gave them about 10% extra of GDP for financing companies to take business
away from the US and other lands. Yes we can cut defense spending 25% as
well. But where is the basis for spending on NEA? Or other really
discretionary items like that? Dept. of Education was not even a
department
until about 1974. What is their budget now? How many employees? How
much
did spending go up during the Clinton years? Just like California, they
spent the windfall of the dot.com boom, without saving any of the
windfall.
Plus they committed the spending in to future years. Clinton came closer
to
balancing the budget, only because there was a tremendous surge in
Federal
Revenues from all those IPO's. They took about 36.5% of every IPO. 35%
top
tax rate and 1.5% Medicare tax. No upper limits on either. Look at the
vote buying via Medicare and the drug benefits. Totally out of control
spending.


There is an interesting idea floating around the tax reform community.
Maybe the tax payer should get a receipt at the end of the year (just
a web site you can visit, not a piece of paper) that takes your total
tax bill and breaks it down into how much money went to SS, Medicare,
DoD, HHS etc.
It would be a real eye opener for most people. You quickly figure out
that most of the things people bitch about the loudest only cost them
$10 a year or less. The lion's share of your tax money goes to things
people are not willing to cut. Social Security and Medicare.
DoD is really the big slice of the pie that we can cut but it is
skillfully doled out to all 50 states so it is hard to get much
traction in congress for cutting any of it.
DoD is our ongoing stimulus project.

DoD probably is a better stimulus than what the Stimulus package is
spending on. Still we need to cut spending at least 45%. Match expenses
to revenues and pay down some of the massive debt. DeFume likes NEA. Why
are we funding arts when we are borrowing to fund basics? We are cutting
aid to the handicapped, but paying for performance arts, etc. I like the
arts, I do art welding as a hobby, I go to plays, but I can afford to
spend for the tickets and the welding supplies. The government's can not
afford the luxuries these days. Just like a family should, if you can not
afford it, do not buy it.

The DoD spending is good stim, the stim was good stim, the GM bailout was
good stim (their/domestic sales are up, foreign car sales down, even with
incentives), Yes, I like the NEA. No, we can't cut spending 45% in this
economy Mr. Hoover.