The trillion dollar sacred bull in the room.

[Whovian]

The United States government has one of the smallest relative budgets in the industrialized world in terms of housing, health care, education, care for retirees, public transit, student aid, helping the poor, etc., while maintaining a military budget that is almost as high as that of every other country in the world combined. Why isn't this being discussed as we head toward the "fiscal cliff?"

[Deep13]

1. I'd add the prison industrial complex to that. nt

[dkf]

2. Health care? Really?

What are the numbers?

[TreasonousBastard]

3. The real answer? Jobs...

Every Congressional district has at least one base, operation, or contractor that might lose out if the budget were cut. Cutting small bases is often used as threats to get them to go along with other stuff.

Congresscritters have been known to fight to keep open bases, projects, weapons, and whatever that the military doesn't even want or have any use for just to keep the jobs in their districts. We had an independent base closing commission just so Congress would keep its hands off, but they managed to screw it up anyway.

And, a huge chunk of our exports is military hardware.

The Pentagon has become the military industrial complex Eisenhower warned us about. The beast that will not die.

I wish I had an answer.

[Coyotl]

4. Two words: NO SHIT!

Imperialism enriches a few and impoverishes the many.

[JDPriestly]

5. Don't mention these facts in the Barack Obama forum. You could be banned.

It is heresy you know.

[indepat]

6. Because the right-wing rhetoric has won the minds of far too many Democrats and tens of millions,

it not hundreds of millions, of Americans: to wit, to promote the common welfare is anathema, a pinko, commie, bleeding-heart liberal wussie concept rather than doctrine enshrined in the Preamble to our Constitution. The corporatist, fascist plutocrats rule the day and the national agenda and the 98% must pander to and feed the greed of the 2%.