You Get What You Pay For
The effects of Defense wide cuts is far reaching. As this US News Article discusses.
“We’re an 11-carrier Navy in a 15-carrier world.” Army General Martin Dempsey said.
According to Marine General John Kelly, his command is, “unable to get after 74 percent of suspected maritime drug smuggling.”
Our budgets are being cut so tight that we are unable to accomplish the ever increasing global missions that we are being tasked to accomplish. This is an ultimate consequence of the success of our military and the generations that came before. They have established a sense of security within our borders that fosters the idea that we no longer need the military. That is a nice idea, and 9/11 should have been a reminder of that, but as a nation we have a short term memory.
There will come a point when we as a nation are again reminded that the world is not a friendly place and we can’t solve problems by throwing money at them. Well, throwing money at other people, while failing to invest in ourselves, our infrastructure and our ability to defend it. The issues in Crimea are highlighting the failure of that thought process, and I hope that we won’t have to solve that problem with physical intervention. Stalin, however, does seem to be trying the west/America’s patience, just to see what he can get away with.
At the rate we are going, however, with more budget cuts, we won’t have much left to fight with. Our military will be poorly equipped, understaffed and under trained. Hopefully, our enemies will just be happy that we keep developing new iPhones and still make great movies, and just leave us to our own devices.
Category: Defense cuts, Foreign Policy, Military issues, Reality Check
Now, now, Adam – you know that free phones for everyone, free food benefits, and free medical care for everyone are more important than defending the country. Why do you pretend otherwise above?
(I hope the sarcasm is obvious as hell here.)
Quite obvious. Of course we should give everyone what they really deserve. That is the American way.
The American people better pray that they never “get what they deserve”. They deserve to boil in oil for what they did to this republic, twice!
Gotta pay for those EBT cards somehow. I’d bet my house the majority of assholes in this administration have never heard of Task Force Smith or Kasserine Pass.
In fairness…not just limited to the current administration. If you did a “man on the street” segment among random group of congress critters, those in uniform, and regular everyday folk…you might get highly dismayed.
Stalin? Oh! His binki boiar. I read this last night: “… we are on the brink of another wave of potential copycat behaviors that could alter the stability of the world. As Russia starts reclaiming control over ex-Soviet nations – those countries that buffer against its borders and/or contain a number of Russian speaking comrades – we may anticipate similar moves on the part of other nations over the remainder of this decade. It’s the threat of another type of war – military in this case. Western Europe and the United States are trying to frame this as a failed return to the past, to the archaic Cold War of the 20th century. But I think not. This is trend of the future, not a return to the past. We are in the crux of a profound geopolitical change in the world that could last until the middle of this new 21st century. The shift is from a progressive, liberal world society, to one that is more central-government-control over the lives of individuals, by either mutual consensus, or whatever coercive means these leaders deem vital to… their control. That shift will continue to gain dominance until it peaks around the time of the opposition in 2046-2048. The events that are unfolding (August 2013-April 2014) indicate that this is the direction of the events that are unfolding. Nothing is being done to alter this new direction. The rhetoric that such behavior is “old fashioned,” and so “20th century in thought,” fails to acknowledge one important point: This is What is Happening, and has nothing to do with What Should be Happening due to the “enlightenment” of Mankind since the mid-1960’s. If you want to know the future of the next 30-40 years, study the trends of the past five years, and especially the trends of August 2013 through May 2014. This is the time that the 30-40 year foundation of a world movement is being built. The events that happen now, and the political and banking decisions being made now, will shape our reality for the next 3 to 4 decades.… Read more »
Great point, most people are only concerned with the problems they directly face. Which shouldn’t be an issue if our elected officials represented them better. But…
Spend every nickel you have and more all the while neglecting the reality of maintaining your home and guess what your home starts to look like shit after a while, and that’s we are now.
Roads, bridges, schools, power plants, critical infrastructure elements neglected to cover ever more ridiculous components of life while also allowing the manufacturing base of the nation to leave the borders. You can’t run a nation on the tax revenues generated by service industry jobs even when the top 1% keep getting ever more wealthy and the middle class keeps slipping behind. Shortly, when the gap between the 1% and the middle class approaches more closely what exists in Mexico or Brazil we will lose the ability to pay for much more than our own defense.
It’s great to talk about free phones and EBT cards, but when you take a real hard look at who really gets welfare and realize that thanks to our free trade status with nations that have nothing to offer in return it would appear that those receiving the most benefit of the welfare state aren’t the bottom feeders at all, but members of that 1%. But they’ve managed to point the finger at the chubby welfare mom with the cell phone as the real culprit. As if the chubby welfare mom had anything to do with a free trade agreement that cost 1 million high paying manufacturing jobs in a deficit trade agreement with Mexico and China.
Keep thinking that lowering welfare benefits will fix the country as we continue to lose manufacturing jobs, see where that leads in 50 years. Thankfully I will be dead and won’t have to see it, but I can guarantee that reform is needed from top to bottom and free trade agreements are the worse thing that can happen to a nation that depends on a well to do middle class to fund its’ social program.
VOV thank you and well said. I often berate here our welfare state. But the larger welfare state is indeed the one sided free trade agreements and money thrown and nations who offer nothing in return. Well except to vote against us in the UN. There is an old saying, “Charity begins at home”. We have to take care of our nations, its jobs and its future first and foremost. In the last several decades we have not done such a great job of that. Our current military condition is a perfect example of this.
On another note, I am glad Marine General John Kelly has his fourth star. Because if he only had three, he would never make four with statements like he made, however pointed and true they may be.
It surprised me to hear Gen. Kelly say this. I still do miss Mattis, I served under him in the invasion. Couldn’t ask for more from a leader or a Marine. The things he would have said in a similar situation would have been hilarious.
Veritas,
Here is a great article about the details of the 1%.
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303519404579352551767664072
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing against income inequality, simply that the 1% or .1% are not this faceless Wall Street enemy.
Two things need to happen,
Tax reform, a simplification of the tax code to prevent loop holes and tax fairly. It has been argued that a 10% tax on income for everyone to include corporations would be more than enough.
Restructure the current government institutions, with a focus on efficiency. Something as simple as setting a flat tax on income could streamline the entire tax system, that could decrease the size of the IRS considerably and automate a lot of the tax process. This frees up money to be more fairly distributed.
I also believe that by offering long term welfare programs we are telling people that we don’t think they can do it on their own which sells them short. Give people a bottom to fall to and they will pick themselves up and demonstrate their true potential. When the bottom isn’t that bad they may just hang out there for a while.
Adam: figures I’ve seen put the “breakeven” point at around 15-18% vice 10%. But I agree – a flat tax would be a much fairer approach. (A tax on consumption would IMO be even better and more fair – but I’m reluctant to ask for that from the Federal government because I’m positive we’d get that ALONG WITH an income tax.)
However, according to our liberal, Progressive “brethren” we just can’t do that. Why? Because it would be “unfair to the poor”.
Somehow, I just can’t see what in the hell is so damn unfair about “make a dollar, pay taxes on it” if everyone is treated equally on that score. Seems to me that’s an example of perfectly equal treatment from top to bottom. But maybe that’s just me.
You might want to take a look at numbers before castigating the “1%” for not paying their share, though. The top 1% (by AGI) of Federal taxpayers already pay a hugely disproportionate share of the Federal individual income taxes paid. Over the period 1999-2009, the top 1% by AGI consistently paid between approx 1/3 and 2/5 of all personal Federal income taxes collected.
In contrast the bottom 50% of US taxpayers (per AGI) collectively paid only between 2.25% and 4.0% of Federal individual income taxes collected over the same period (share varies by year).
http://www.ntu.org/tax-basics/who-pays-income-taxes.html
And when you throw in EIC, etc, the top 40 percent of taxpayers foot 109 percent of the burden. This is sustainable how, exactly?
And it’s more like a 9-carrier navy. Two are awaiting refueling and we don’t have the money for it.
Hondo, you are probably right about the higher percentage of break-even. I just like the number 10 because it is round. In the end it is all estimates.
The simple fact is the top percentages pay for services that they aren’t receiving. And they are paying an unequal share for those services. I’m not saying let the bottom end suffer, just give them a reason to try.