California Democratic Party calls for a 25% reduction in MIlitary Spending

[JDPriestly]

24. I don't know whether our government's expenditures are transparent enough for them to do that.

We are, for example, implicated through some sort of military or quasi-military presence in a number of African countries. Why? What is the extent of our engagement? How much are we spending on it?

The CIA budget, I believe, may be mostly classified. A lot of the troublemaking starts there as far as we can tell from the tiny bit we know. And yet, there is a lot of legitimate information-gathering at the CIA that doesn't stir the already troubled waters around the world.

More transparency might make it easier to discuss the details of cutting our military budget. And we will not improve our government's budget unless we drastically cut the military.

We cannot cut Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid or Food Stamps or SSI or health care. Those expenditures keep Americans alive and out of the bankruptcy courts. Every penny "saved" on those programs had to be found somewhere in our economy. It's best to leave those alone.

But we can cut back on our troops overseas and our too big to succeed corporate subsidies, and that is what we should do.