A bit of good news for the deficit

[billvon 3,132]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon leaders outlined a plan Thursday for absorbing $487 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade by shrinking U.S. ground forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter and retiring older planes and ships.
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That's only $49 billion a year compared to a $689 billion total military budget (and a $3400 billion total budget) but it's a start.

[jgoose71 0]

Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[mnealtx 0]

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Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

But hey, not to worry, gov't employees will get a small pay raise...

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees in his fiscal 2013 budget, according to an administration official.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[billvon 3,132]

>Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

We can't. We need to more than double the amount of military cuts - and then cut everything else by about the same percentage.

>Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

Yes, they should. Maybe - oh I don't know - the Somalis could deal with the Somali pirates.

[jgoose71 0]

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Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

But hey, not to worry, gov't employees will get a small pay raise...

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees in his fiscal 2013 budget, according to an administration official.

No, that's money saved because it's not the full pay raise according to the inflation index that government employee's receive every year.

Obama will take the usual pay raise difference and add it to his "money cut" pile. You know, the "instead of $500 billion in new spending, I only added $400 billion in new spending, so I cut the deficit by $100 billion" thing he brags about.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[mnealtx 0]

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Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

But hey, not to worry, gov't employees will get a small pay raise...

Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will propose a 0.5 percent pay increase for civilian federal employees in his fiscal 2013 budget, according to an administration official.

No, that's money saved because it's not the full pay raise according to the inflation index that government employee's receive every year.

Obama will take the usual pay raise difference and add it to his "money cut" pile. You know, the "instead of $500 billion in new spending, I only added $400 billion in new spending, so I cut the deficit by $100 billion" thing he brags about.

So, it's sorta like that 'jobs created or saved' schtick?

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Andrewwhyte 1]

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Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

Next time someone get kidnapped by Somali pirates, they can rescue them selves.......

So are you against any military cuts whatsoever? Do favour a military spending increase?

[jgoose71 0]

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the Somalis could deal with the Somali pirates.

I put the odds on Somalis taking care of Somali pirates the same as Obama balancing the budget.

Actually, the same as Obama passing a budget......

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[billvon 3,132]

>I put the odds on Somalis taking care of Somali pirates the same as Obama balancing the budget.

Probably. Their country, their problem. Treat others as we'd want to be treated.

[jgoose71 0]

I know the Military wastes a lot of money. Being in the military I can't tell you how much money I've seen flushed down the toilet. It's the same for all of government. Especially at the end of September.

It just chaps my ass knowing that there are other area's, like Medicare and Social Security that need overhauling also. Yet if a budget doesn't get passed, the automatic cuts were were pretty much solely military.

When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[rehmwa 2]

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon leaders outlined a plan Thursday for absorbing $487 billion in defense cuts over the coming decade by shrinking U.S. ground forces, slowing the purchase of a next-generation stealth fighter and retiring older planes and ships.
=============

That's only $49 billion a year compared to a $689 billion total military budget (and a $3400 billion total budget) but it's a start.

Good start - more please

and suck it up and cut everything else too

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[kelpdiver 2]

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>I put the odds on Somalis taking care of Somali pirates the same as Obama balancing the budget.

Probably. Their country, their problem. Treat others as we'd want to be treated.

seems to be more a problem for everyone outside of Somalia. Like when the Latin American countries blame the Gringos for all their gun violence...it wouldn't exist without us.

[jgoose71 0]

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>I put the odds on Somalis taking care of Somali pirates the same as Obama balancing the budget.

Probably. Their country, their problem. Treat others as we'd want to be treated.

So using that logic, we are justified in kidnapping Somalis for ransom?

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[kelpdiver 2]

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When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

because they're the largest expense that doesn't take in revenue. SS and MC have long term issues, not short term ones and subsidized the military spending for the past 3 decades.

because we don't really need bases all over the world anymore...or at least we don't need to be spending the money for the value they provide versus the other bills we have to pay.

And at the end of this process, that military budget is likely to be half or less what it is now, VA spending aside.

[billvon 3,132]

>So using that logic, we are justified in kidnapping Somalis for ransom?

Nope. Not unless you want to be kidnapped yourself.

[lawrocket 3]

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>Yep, it's a good start. Hopefully we can balance the budget with only military cuts.

We can't. We need to more than double the amount of military cuts - and then cut everything else by about the same percentage.

Well, a couple of years ago, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen said that "National Debt is our biggest security threat."

Kinda nice to see that the military is starting from within and setting an example. But I don't expect to see the national debt fall any time soon. $500 billion over ten years is enough to make any bureaucrat salivate. It'll be spent.


As an aside, I’d read about this. Should be a cut of about 80,000 active duty troops. This, of course, will put a big pressure on the Guard and Reserve (again) should deployment to a theater be necessary. They’re also looking at increasing the share of special ops handling things. So it sounds as though the move is planned to turn to fully implement the Network Centric Doctrine of the military using smaller groups, more spread out, but with greater information access.

It’ll be interesting to see how it works. The whole prospect of military operating in smaller cells around the globe.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[billvon 3,132]

>It just chaps my ass knowing that there are other area's, like Medicare and Social
>Security that need overhauling also. Yet if a budget doesn't get passed, the automatic
>cuts were were pretty much solely military.

Agreed. We need to cut everything.

>When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian
>Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

Because Medicare and Medicaid is saving people's grandmother's lives.

And the CDC is working to prevent deadly epidemics.

And Homeland Security is keeping us safe from terrorists.

And the EPA is keeping our water and air clean.

Every expenditure in the government has justification behind it, and every politician ever has promised to "trim the fat" without killing grandma or letting the terrorists win.

That approach doesn't work. We need to make deep cuts even in beloved programs like the military. Yes, it will be painful. But it has to happen.

[jgoose71 0]

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>So using that logic, we are justified in kidnapping Somalis for ransom?

Nope. Not unless you want to be kidnapped yourself.

You say this like there is something we can do to get them to stop kidnapping people.

*News flash*

There isn't. It's how they make money. It's nothing personal, it's just business in a corrupt country. And the corruption in their county isn't going to end any time soon.

You have a vary naive view of the situation.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[billvon 3,132]

>You say this like there is something we can do to get them to stop kidnapping people.
>*News flash* There isn't.

Agreed. The only way to avoid Somalian pirates is to avoid Somalia. (Which isn't that bad an idea overall.)

[lawrocket 3]

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When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

Because military spending is discretionary. It's far easier to cut the Defense budget than it is to cut an entitlement.

Secondly - there are far more people ON entitlements than in the military. Plenty of people have paid into the entitlements (Medicare and Social Security) with the expectation of receiving the benefits (like all Ponzi scheme participants do). And those on Welfare, well, they are on welfare and how does one just cut off all they have?

Nobody has the balls to commit political suicide and do it.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[jgoose71 0]

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Every expenditure in the government has justification behind it, and every politician ever has promised to "trim the fat" without killing grandma or letting the terrorists win.

Yes we agree on that. Every program can be justified in one way or another.

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That approach doesn't work. We need to make deep cuts even in beloved programs like the military. Yes, it will be painful. But it has to happen.

Yes, we need to make deep cuts to our beloved programs.

Your missing my point though. Why is the military being singled out?

If you said, "because their is a Democrat in office and he's not going to cut his programs," I could respect that.

Just saying that all programs can be justified, doesn't explain the singling out of anything.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[billvon 3,132]

>Why is the military being singled out?

Because we have to start somewhere. Next Medicare should be "singled out." Next HUD. Etc. "Single someone else out first" hasn't worked.

[Bolas 5]

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When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

because they're the largest expense that doesn't take in revenue. SS and MC have long term issues, not short term ones and subsidized the military spending for the past 3 decades.

The military should take in revenue. Large corporations and rich countries benefit from the military, they should not get those services for "free."

Ex. Any company or country doing business with Iraq or Afghanistan companies or government pays a "stabilization tax".

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[jgoose71 0]

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When the military is out killing Bin Laden, rescuing hostages, and saving Iranian Sailors, how do you justify targeting them only for government cuts?

Because military spending is discretionary. It's far easier to cut the Defense budget than it is to cut an entitlement.

Secondly - there are far more people ON entitlements than in the military. Plenty of people have paid into the entitlements (Medicare and Social Security) with the expectation of receiving the benefits (like all Ponzi scheme participants do). And those on Welfare, well, they are on welfare and how does one just cut off all they have?

Nobody has the balls to commit political suicide and do it.

Agreed, most of the war time spending is discretionary. And there is a lot of spending cuts that will happen automatically with the withdraw from Iraq and the down sizing of all said task forces in the region. I'm not upset at the cuts to the military. It's to be expected.

It pisses me off though that the only cuts are coming from the military.

"There is an art, it says, or, rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
Life, the Universe, and Everything

[lawrocket 3]

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Your missing my point though. Why is the military being singled out?

If you said, "because their is a Democrat in office and he's not going to cut his programs," I could respect that.

Problem - the President cannot cut military spending. Only Congress can. The House is controlled by the GOP.

This is not something I'm willing to put on the POTUS. This is an implementation of the military vision enunciated 10 or 15 years ago.

My wife is hotter than your wife.