Lost In Space

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xd9fan

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In todays Wall Street Journal opinion page, an artical titled 'lost in space' by a Mr Cooper former director of the SDI and chief US negotiator to the Geneva Sace and Defence Talks, has a huge letter on now why we NEED missle defence.

I get mad (being a fiscal conservative) when Liberals tell me not to question "how much is enough" and "What can be cut, to pay for this?" when it comes to education. (Here in Minnesota, education demands 50% of the total state budget with no signs of slowing down....reguardless of which party is running the state)

So I ask Mr Cooper and the GOP "hawks", you want SDI? Fine.

With 800 plus militery bases in 126 countries, tell me how many bases around the world we should close to pay for it?

We spend more on defence annually, than EVERY country in the world COMBINED. Last I looked, it was 23% of the total GDP. How much is enough? and What can be cut, to pay for this?

I get the same emotionalism from Republicans on this issue like liberals on education. 'HOW DARE YOU'

Dont give me emotionalism. (like gordon gekko said, If you need a friend buy a dog)


Mr Cooper does not want to cut or trim but just pile on. I look at him like I look at Ted Kennedy. You cant be serious:cuss:


sorry I dont have the WSJ link
 
We spend more on defence annually, than EVERY country in the world COMBINED. Last I looked, it was 23% of the total GDP.
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Look again. The USA's GDP is slightly over 12 trillion dollars. 23% of that is around 2.8 trillion dollars.

We're actually spending a bit over 500 billion dollars on military - that's a lot by just about any measure, but it's still just a little more than 4% of GDP.

It's valid to debate whether we're spending the money properly to get "the most bang for the buck" . . . but the amount seems reasonable.

And at least we're getting something more than we do for various welfare programs; for all the return we get on those, we may as well be flushing the funds down the toilet. (Ditto for a good part of the education budget.)
 
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