catapult magazine

http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/02/04/bush.budget/

So is it going to take a another Democratic president to clean up the fiscal mess left by another militaristic Republican? I know lots of you won’t like that wording, but what is it with Republican hypocrisy when it comes to fiscal responsiblity?

i have a lot of issues with spending so much on our military. last year, our government spent more than $360 billion on military expenses and $50 billion on education.

where are our priorities? i think it was jesus who said, “where your money is, there your heart is also.”

As a teacher recently employed by the public school system, those number are a bit bothersome. Then again, so is a hangnail…Let’s say more than bothersome.
Next year, our school district will be given an extra $50,000. That’s $200,000 less than what we were promised, and $120,000 less than we will need to cover increased health insurance costs. That’s a problem. Programs are being cut and the next step is people. As a first year teacher in the district I’m actually worried about my job.
Priorities are never where they should be in government. That doesn’t mean that Education should necessarily be number one, but I don’t think there should be a 300+ billion dollar discrepancy toward defense, whether that’s national security or whatever. There is more than one way for the American people to feel vulnerable.

Amen to all of this. For some reason the military seems to take priority over all else. Sure, everyone else is “scared of us” but I saw an interesting figure on the news the other night. OUt of every country in the world, the US is tops among National Deficits. Suprising? It was to me. The national debt is up and above 6 TRILLION bones. It is pure irony to think of ouselves as a RICH nation. Maybe not irony, maybe stupidity. I think that we just know how to fix the books a little better that the rest of the world.

How much of that debt is due to unecessary military actions and expenses?

As a reaction to eddie’s post and just curiosity, how much did Reagan’s “star wars” program cost? I’m sure lots of it is being used today, but I’d be interested in finding out how much of our debt is due to those types of cold war programs and nuclear stockpiling.

Some argue that the demise of the Soviet Union was a result of Reagan’s outrageous military spending sprees. That argument doesn’t hold much water, but the spending continued under Bush Sr, I think. Clinton reduced the size of goverment dramatically, reigned in the military a little bit, and managed to pay down the debt some. Now Republican financial irresponsibilty is back with a frenzy. Like I said, it’s some sort of Republican blindspot that preaches fiscal responsiblity and bashes Democrat big government — meanwhile the walk is not the talk.

Budgets are a problem at every level of government. The military (even after being halved by Clinton & Bush Sr.) is an enormous beaurocracy. There are all kinds of things wrong with the system. A few years ago I visited an artillery unit with several million $ worth of vehicles but only one 286 computer (that’s about a vintage 1990-slow- for you non-techies out there) for the whole battery to use. These high paid officers would wait in line at the computer for a private to finish his project for a higher ranking officer. For a few grand they could’ve gotten another computer and doubled their productivity.What a waste of time and money!

Many posts have new barracks because politicians promising to improve the quality of life for our soldiers gives the american people warm fuzzies. Meanwhile we never have enough bullets to shoot (because more ammo doesn’t give you the warm fuzzies), so I have a bunch of really comfortable soldiers who qualify on their weapons maybe once a year.

Then there’s the issue that if you don’t spend all your budget for the fiscal year you won’t get it back the next year. So there’s always year-end spending sprees in government programs because they are penalized for being frugal.

So part of the problem is congress/president, but there are also inefficiencies and abuses at all levels.

That reminds me of a bit I read about North Korean fighter pilots. They are so tight on fuel and spare parts that these pilots only get an average of 7 minutes of flying every year. When one of their fighters flew into South Korean airspace for 2 minutes a few days ago, nobody was sure if it was a provocation, or simply an rusty pilot.

I think the logic behind money to the military has something to do with the idea that if a nation with a strong military decides to conquer the U.S. and we don’t have a decent military, then there will no longer be a U.S. government to give money to schools, government programs etc.

you left out giving money to unstable puppet regimes that will later turn against us thereby forcing more “defense” money. That’s been a biggie.

Just a question regarding the discussion about defense versus education. Norbert – when you talk about your school not getting the money it expected, is that at the state or federal level? I was under the impression that the state funded 2/3rds of your costs. So, it would actually be the state, rather than the military of the United States, taking money from the schools? The details weren’t clear, so I’m just trying to understand the arguments.