500 Billion A Year For Defense?

It mentions a navy not the "U.S. Navy."

The United States first navy with ships with guns was the "Revenue Service" today known as the U.S. Coast Guard.

 

Ah, so what you are saying is that the US Navy is not a navy.

That's a stupid argument.

It's equally as dumb as the "general warfare clause" bullshit being bandied about.

 

The problem is congress uses the military as a civilian jobs creator and maintainer. There's been many instances where the military has told congress they don't need this, can't use that, etc. but congress appropriates the money for those things anyway. The reason, to keep jobs associate with the military and to create new jobs for the civilians back in their home district and state.

Just giving the military the funds it needs to protect and defend this country instead of making the military spend billions on things it doesn't need or want, could possible reduce DOD's budget by 100 billion a year with no degradation of the security and national defense the military is charged to take care of.

Of course this could lead to the loss of millions of jobs provided by the defense sector to civilians. Certainly to those in congress where this loss would take place in their districts and states, that is a no, no. I suppose the bottom line is as long as congress uses the military as a jobs provider, maintainer and creator, there will be no cuts in the military. Congress will cut the military's strength before cutting anything, unneeded and unwanted equipment, weapon and communications systems, aircraft and the like. Cutting manpower is always easier than cutting anything that might hurt the civilian jobs for unneeded and unwanted equipment and systems.

Most in congress doesn't look on the military as the defender and protector of this country. Just giving the military the funds necessary to accomplish that job isn't going to happen. They must use the military to provide civilian jobs back home.

Ever go to a DRMO auction? Warehouses full of brand new equipment never used auctioned off for 10% of the cost of that equipment when purchased. Sure a lot of it is 10 years old, but great buys are available. That is where I got my last laptop. Never used, had Windows 7 on it. Brand new, but 10 years old. Still in the box. 25 dollars.

 

C'on, you know better than that for goodness sake:


GENERAL WELFARE CLAUSE. Article I, section 8 of the U. S. Constitution grants Congress the power to "lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common defense and general Welfare of the United States."

 

Shouldn't a real navy have real sailors ?

 

Were the sailors in the US Navy made of straw and wood?

 

Many Democrats in Congress and especially the former Obama administration looked at the military as something to use as a politically correct social engineering experiment.

 

If Apacherat had his way, the military would never have been used for "social engineering" and would still have racially segregated units.

 

on the contrary, it is Republicans and the far right that looks upon it that way

 

If we were always winning wars, if it's not broken don't fix it.

Have you been on a military installation lately ?

You remember the saying, "Hurry up and wait."

Today everyone goes into a group (click). The whites in one group, Hispanics in the other group, blacks in their group, females in their own click that is also broken down by race and not forgetting the gays and dykes having their own clicks.

Then the individual groups break down into other clicks mostly based upon music they listen to. rock n roll, hip-hop, country, motown, etc.

 

Yes, I have been on a military installation lately. I actually served within the last generation. Your assessment is not accurate and only represents how much of a dinosaur you are. Your use of an anti-gay slur just reinforces that.

 

The Republicans have not or have ever adopted cultural-marxism.

Many of those who voted for Donald Trump did so because Trump isn't politically correct, opposes political-correctness and has the cajones to call a spade a spade.

FYI:
No war has ever been won using political correctness.

 

Anti-gay slur ?

Don't you mean that some white beard scratching liberal decided what words were PC and what words were not PC ?

BTW:
What's the PC word for a masculine lesbian who plays the male part in a homosexual relationship ?

https://www.dykesonbikes.org/

 

Who wants to place a bet on if anti-PC Apacherat throws down the N-word in common conversation? I'm betting yes.

 

the same should hold true for any right wing public policies; like our alleged crime, drug, and terror wars. stop trying to solve every individual's problems.

 

Yes, I do. Only the right wing appeals to ignorance. We have no general warfare clause.

 

I would suggest, stay away from Vegas.

 

Oh, so you are PC and have stopped using words because they aren't politically correct?

 

Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution, sometimes referred to as the War Powers Clause, vests in the Congress the power to declare war, in the following wording:

[The Congress shall have Power...] To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Powers_Clause

 

The N word was never really part of my vocabulary.

Back in the day when I served black Marines were referred to as splibs and white Marines were referred to as chucks.

 

Here are the general powers delegated to Congress, again:

Special pleading is all the right wing knows how to do.

 

Those are not "general powers", that is the introductory clause that leads into the powers which are listed in the following clauses.

 

Our Constitution and form of socialism is limited by express terms. We have no general warfare clause nor any common offense clause.

 

You repeat this idiotic phrase again. Socialism wasn't even an understood concept at the time the Constitution was written.

 

$500 billion a year is easily maintainable. It will just requires a few hard choices. First and foremost it would require a complete realignment of the civilian DoD bureaucracy. Get rid of most of the service specific, but redundant, agencies like Naval intelligence and Army Intel and wrap them all into Defense intelligence. The same can be done in logistics organizations.

Second on the list is a completely reformed acquisition program. The current one is slow, expensive, and rewards cronyism.

Third, remove ourselves from NATO, the UN, and all other military alliances. A large piece of our spending is on propping up our "allies" small, out dated, and otherwise neglected militaries.

Finally, now that we have a smaller footprint for the military, we can cut 25% of personnel.