My fear is that if they cut military spending, just like greedy corporations, the military will cut pay for the lowest paid tier first. Meanwhile captains and above will continue to get paid ridiculously beyond what they are worth in the private sector. That's why no one in government will touch it. They'll be seen as the "unpatriotic person who wants to rob pay from underpaid service men and women". end of uninformed comment
For some perspective, the budget for the US army in 2010 was $243.9 billion, roughly 8x the budget of the National Institutes of Health for the same year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_S...
http://nexus.od.nih.gov/nexus/nexus.aspx?ID=369&Month=01...
And the left won't do it, because they know that they are perceived as weaker on defense, so they try to overcompensate and move way towards the Right when they are in positions of influence and decision making. The first party that significantly goes after military spending will be pounced on by the other party and dragged over the coals in front of the American public, even if those lighting the fire know damn well that cutting military spending makes all kinds of sense. Then, besides all of that, there are the usual dynamics of just having a very powerful special interest lobby with tons of money and government contracts completely entrenched in the system.
They neither have achieved anything beneficial to the US from Afghanistan war, nor did it make Afghanis more secure. It just seemed to be a repetition to the Iraqi war. Nobody can win in the war on terror, because it is not a traditional war, and the enemies scatter among the civilians. The American government should exit the war on terror, but of course they need a clever political strategy to convince the public. Anyhow, the government just needs to stir the fear of people's personal financial situation over the fear of the national security. They need to get their message across. Obama is not too good at it.
His position is secure, but all of the House and Senate Democrats are not. Even if he took on the military spending, his own party will vote according to their own political interest. The Democrats will not author or vote to support controversial legislation, and even if it did, the Senate would not vote to enact it. President Obama actually has very little say in the matter. Also, even if he supported reigning it in, Conservatives would jump on his statements and paint all Democrats as weak on defense (even if they privately agree with the Dems). It's really kind of sad.
Yeah, but as soon as you try and convince the public of something, you're taking a stand. The Dems know that if they do that they are opening themselves up to political attack from the Republicans. I'm sure they'd love to do what they feel is right on this and a number of issues, they just don't want to do that if it means they might have to get a new job in a couple years. Their integrity only runs so deep. Same goes for the Repubs. >This article made me worried about my retirement, and my financial situation. Oh no! I wouldn't get too worked up about it. If the situation gets too bad they'll do something, they'll just wait until the people wise up and get so angry about the issue that they start voting them out. Right now though, there are too many people susceptible to having the 'national defense' card played on them. Collectively, as a people, we get what we put into our Democracy. As it stands, Americans say they care about corruption, and out of control spending, but in reality they really don't. They don't take the time to educate themselves about the issues, we'd rather watch American Idol or something. We're lazy and uninformed, and because of that we allow corrupt people to govern us.
I'll say this though, even if Americans took voting more seriously, we'd still have a tough time fighting through all of the lies, spin, propaganda, and money that the special interest groups and lobbyists are throwing at our representatives and at us through the media. It never ceases to amaze me how many Americans vote against their own interest...