Social Security, despite not having contributed a single penny to the Deficit, is constantly mentioned in the discussions regarding the Deficit, Debt, Debt Ceiling, carefully worded to create the impression that it and any other programs that take care of the least among us, may be the sole causes of the collapse of the US Economy.
Even Democrats are now, shamefully, 'considering' the possible necessity of trading part of the pittances received by the most vulnerable members of this society for a 'deal' with the most corrupt and compromised elements of this society.
But the Military Budget which directly contributed to the deficit is rarely mentioned at all.
Apparently the bloated Military Budget and the combined fraud, corruption and sheer incompetence regarding its management, is the real 'third rail' of politics.
Why is the Pentagon Not Part of the Deficit Discussion?When debt ceilings and deficits seem to be the only two items on Washington’s agenda, it is both revealing and tragic that both parties give a free pass to military spending. Representative Paul Ryan’s much discussed Tea Party budget accepted Obama’s proposal for a pathetic $78 billion reduction in military spending over 5 years, a recommendation that would only modestly slow the rate of growth of military spending.
U.S. military spending now exceeds the spending of all other countries combined. Knowledge military experts argue that we can cut at least $1 trillion from the Pentagon budget without changing its currently expressed mission. But a growing number believe that the mission itself is suspect. Economic competitors like India and China certainly approve of our willingness to undermine our economic competitiveness by diverting trillions of dollars into war and weapons production. Some argue that all this spending has made us more secure but all the evidence points in the opposite direction. Certainly our $2 trillion and counting military adventures in the Middle East and Afghanistan and Pakistan have won us few friends and multiplied our enemies.
What is perhaps most astonishing of all is that cutting the military budget is wildly popular. Even back in 1995, when military spending was only a fraction of its present size, a poll by the Program on International Policy Attitudes reported that 42 percent of the US public feeling that defense spending is too high and a majority of Americans were convinced that defense spending “has weakened the US economy and given some allies an economic edge.”
Public prefers cutting defense spendingWASHINGTON | Wed Mar 9, 2011 2:47pm EST
(Reuters) - A majority of Americans prefer cutting defense spending to reduce the federal deficit rather than taking money from public retirement and health programs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday showed.
The poll found 51 percent of Americans support reducing defense spending, and only 28 percent want to cut Medicare and Medicaid health programs for the elderly and poor. A mere 18 percent back cuts in the Social Security retirement program.
The Pentagon waste described in the linked article is nothing short of criminal. That waste alone could probably take care of the deficit.
So, why are Congress and the WH talking about raising the Medicare age to 67?
Why are the American people being ignored who clearly prefer cuts in Military spending?
Who are the politicians in DC trying to please if it is not the American People?
There is simply no excuse, no way to explain what is being proposed and any politician who goes along with cuts to programs for the most vulnerable, raising the age for medical benefits or in any other way taking more from the most needy, should lose their job.
I'm FOR 'Austerity' and 'Shared Sacrifice', 'Belt Tightening' and 'Reigning in Spending' for the Pentagon and those who benefited the most from the policies that created the current economic situtation, but NOT for those who already have so little. And it is a crime to even suggest doing so.