CUT THE MILITARY BUDGET LIES!
Even if you are a member of Congress, it is difficult to get an honest budget report on how much we are spending on our various military activities. The Pentagon is unable to tell the truth. And the Congress and the President go along with the game of lying to the American people. If you want to dumbfound your U.S. Senator or Congressperson, come armed with accurate budget facts and try to have a discussion. They will run for cover. Your members in the two houses of Congress do not know this stuff. It is a disgrace. What makes it a bigger disgrace is that they know they are lied to. What makes it an even greater disgrace is that some of them seem eager to give the miitary whatever it wants [when I use the term "military" or "Pentagon" I mean all the various private and public facets that go into making up what we call the "military-industrial complex."].
While most pie charts will show the current military expenditure is larger than any other part of the federal budget. It may be listed as 32% or 35% of the total picture. That is a bold-faced lie.
During the Vietnam War, the trust funds from Social Security and other places were co-mingled with the budget so that the total was larger and the military portion looked smaller. But Social Security is collected and paid out separately from the federal budget, it is a trust.
Closer to real figures would look this way: of the total federal budget, about 45% goes for non-military expenditures, and the rest [over 55%] goes for military expenditures. And even that is tilted in favor of the military part of the budget.
U.S. military spending is about equal to the spending on military of the next 15 nations.
The United States accounts for at least 47% of the total military expenditure in the world. [The U.S. has about 21% of the world's Gross Domestic Product or GDP].
Of the next 15 nations that fall below the huge American military spending, at least 12 are considered allies of the U.S.
The U.S. outspends Iran and North Korea by a ratio over 72 to one.
Yes, my dear Republican friends, if you want to cut expenditures in the federal government, guess where it would be a good place to begin? And can we please do our military business with corporations less sleazy than Halliburton and Blackwater? Dick Cheney is gone [thankfully]. We no longer have to be that sinister in buying crooks to do our bidding. Cheney told us only Halliburton could do some of the military work, but when they got secret contracts, many corporations stepped forward to say they could have done it, and done it for less. Sickening.
With all these facts staring us in the face, why are we hesitating about cutting the fat from the federal budget? Why do we immediately think of Social Security and Medicare to cut? Can't our elderly have the peace of mind we promised them? Can our children attend decent schools that are adequately funded? Why must the wealthiest Americans be given the tax breaks? Get the oil corporations fo finally cough up some money. Loopholes are simply institutionalized stealing. Let's end it and balance the budget with honesty and integrity.
