I'm usually one that would throw this out there.


But lets be realistic. As a % of our GDP we are below all those other nations. Meaning as a % of our GDP we spend less on our Military than all those other nations spend in relation to their GDP. I think we are hovering around 3-5% of our GDP. China is something like 10% of their GDP.

Our economy is just freaking huge, and our economy (for better or worse) depends on our military...


No Moe I don't see it improving (political climate) any where in the foreseeable future.

 

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Nope, your the highest by GDP as well, most of the countries in the top 5 are around 2.5% your around 5%

 

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The only way we can make it better is to literally vote every current politician out of office.


I suspect there would be tremendous across the political spectrum support by the citizenry to do this if a single, objective organization could provide the right message. And no, I don't mean some out of touch third party.

 

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I think it will improve once we reform campaign finance.

 

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way too drastic. i agree with letting tax cuts expire. i do think agencies like dept of defense and homeland security as well as TSA need to be scaled way back to a much more precise scope. But cutting 10% kills productivity with scare tactics and ruins local economies when labs and agencies start laying off. you'll throw tons of pressure on the local real estate markets with people being dropped left and right.

there is quite a bit of fat to trim. i know; i've worked at a DOE lab and there were tons of people that worked for 30 yrs that played online chess all day long etc. The truth of the matter is when push comes to shove, those guys tend to stay while the new, bright talent gets laid off and the upper management will not relent on their pay even a little bit.

But when all the projects that are in full swing start worrying about next fiscal year all the time, the project itself gets delayed as people spend more energy worrying about finding another job than getting work done. timelines get extended and projects end up costing more in the long run as their funding drops per annum.

i do have a somewhat libertarian view that we should reduce exposure to other countries. all those servicemen are revitalizing foreign economies with their local spending in germany, japan, etc. i also think that we should play hardball with our import tariffs. dont touch commodities but everything else needs to get bumped up big time. china gets our money from products and then gets money from interest by buying our debt. lose-lose for us in the long run.

 

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I think the Right will never understand that many moderates and leftist would hammer the budget IF they saw it applied equally or if they saw the military getting deep cuts. Sadly the right runs on fear of the world so that will never happen.

 

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Until liberals can no longer use it as an issue to get what they want. There is a 100% chance that if science proves liberal policies are making it worse this issue will disappear in a heartbeat. Of course that will only be after 10 of years of attacks by the anti-science liberals who only believe what they are told to believe. While I have met some very hard core religious (wife being one), there is no one more slow to change or more violent to react in a debate than a liberal.

Tell my wife that Noah got drunk of the wine he made will see her react with denial. Wine is bad and that is that. Christ made grape juice that there is no use saying different.

I get the same reaction from the liberals when I point out the flawed science they use and point them to real science. They know what they know and you are (fill in whatever the current name calling rant you feel like) for even thinking different. Man needs reduce his demands on the planet or we are doomed, and that is that. (Not them of course, they are the chosen ones.)

 

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How do 'we' go about creating a truly non partisan, non biased source for political news that touches on local, state, regional and national issues as well as foreign policy?

We got the internet, there is honestly a fair amount of transparent sources of information...

politicalportal.com of sorts (is that domain taken? crap it's parked, someone wants 2.5k)

 

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I stand corrected - it's been awhile since I had looked at the stats...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

 

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Unfortunately, we cannot. At this point in time, no one on opposite sides will trust each other EVEN if they both agree to a single message. It's my single greatest fear if we were to ever have another Constitutional Convention. There are entirely too many folks interested in their own issues and not enough for the entire country. Can you imagine santorum being part of a Constitutional Convention?

 

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