Everyone wants cuts. Everyone politicizes and complains about the cuts.


Yawn.

Omlett Eggs Break

Fill it in

I feel for these folks but if we want budget cuts and someone's gonna get hurt

Probably a lot of people are gonna get hurt

 

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It is a volunteer service remember if they don't like it, leave.

They get that chance every time they re-up, but then again they get a bonus.

It is about time we cut our military in half, it would solve our budget problems totally.



any questions?

 

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I have a question. When it comes to threesomes which is better - boy girl boy or girl boy girl?

 

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I'd say girl boy girl.

 

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Girl girl boy.

 

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They are beginning to and will continue in much larger numbers if this all gets passed. While we can certainly stand (and in fact need) a force reduction, you need senior leaders to stick around. They will be the first to go under this scenario. If the problem with that isn't obvious...





Not everyone gets a bonus when they re-up, in fact, I would say a considerable amount do not. I doubt many understand the reason for the bonus anyway. It costs the taxpayer FAR less to give an experienced, skilled rating a couple thousand dollars than to bring in a new recruit and train him as a replacement. It's simple math.





I am a very strong supporter of cutting Defense spending, have been for a long time. However, there is a smart way to cut the budget and doing it on the backs of the troops themselves is a bad idea. There are plenty of multi-billion dollar programs that could be eliminated to get the savings needed. There are very little long-term benefits to a military career, but trust me when I say that the medical benefit is practically the single exception.

 

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While I agree that we need to drastically cut the number of people in the military (standing force of around 100K total would be good), and I have no problem with some increased cost for medical benefits, they need to be god damn careful and not go too far.

I worked my ass off for years in the military. Was away from home for years, didn't get to be with my family, did crappy jobs for crappy pay, put up with more stupid bullshite than I can even start to list.....all in return for some pretty great benefits. I did my part, you try to take away from me now what I put up with all those years to earn...you are going to have a problem.

My medical costs have gone up every year since 2001. Drastically up. I'm lucky, I can afford it, many can not. 8 Rx's a day isn't unusual, and it costs $224 bucks a month now, cost $24 in 2001. There are retired vets that don't earn much more than 600 a month, and it costs more than a third of that just for their Rx's.

They need to cut money wasted on stupid weapons programs we don't need, and stupid ships we don't need, and stupid bases we don't need.....not increase the cost of staying alive to men and women who served and suffered so those ass holes in DC could wave the flag and drink cocktails with lobbyists.

I support our vets in very real and personal ways.

Over half the military cost is personnel, and those numbers are vastly increasing due to progress in our medical fields.

Soldiers that would have never survived now do, and then they are cared for, for the rest of their lives, which is pretty long these days.

Some abuse that system but they are small in number.

There is huge waste in the military, and I agree the smart cuts are in other areas.

A lot of what this is about also involves the dependents.

You know why we don't close so many military bases overseas.

Because the military men and especially those with dependents enjoy many privileges that they do not get if on US territory.

One example is medical care, if in the USA the dependents have to use civilian dentists and hospitals, but not when stationed overseas, there they get everything on base including the hospitals etc.

This is one (rather obscure) reason why this industry is draining us of our financial life blood, money.

The professional officers and enlisted men do not want to move back to the USA.

All that aside, we are in a fantasy land on how much of our GDP goes into defense.

While the military spends like drunken sailors and "Patriots" are willing to go fisticuffs over any mention of cuts, our share of debt vs GDP will reach Greek numbers in less than a decade.

Meanwhile we burn our money in the mideast going after freedom fighters (from their perspective you have to admit) all so our big oil companies can make record profits.

The sooner oil gets to $200/barrel the sooner we will wean off of it.

Nevertheless personnel is a huge factor, half the costs of the defense dept, when you consider long term costs of disabled people we could be talking 1/4 to 1/3 of our GDP.

It's past time for us to make shooting wars unfashionable again, bring back the draft even if you have to.

Gut gut the professional military that is bleeding us dry and invest in the infrastructure we need to fight the real war of the 21st century, a war of economic production.

We borrow money from China and piss it away on defense.

Cheap power is what we need, without it we are doomed.

 

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YOU TAKE AWAY MY BENNIES AND I'LL... AND I'LL... VOTE FOR OBAMA ANYWAY CUZ THE OTHER GUYS SUCK


that sum it up for you sir?

 

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