$296 Billion, 22 Months

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron."

-- Dwight Eisenhower, April 16, 1953

Cancel those weapons systems!
Spend the money on things we can use.

First of all, this "good debt bad debt" thing is ridiculous; we're long past the point where we can even repay some of these loans without hyper-inflation. But anyway, at least Wallis recognizes the harmful effects on an economy with super-spending on violent endeavors such a defense systems.

I wish he would apply the same logic to the debt we're incurring on any front, not just "weapons stuff." Any dollar taken from the private sector and spent in the public sector is one more dollar not contributing to a new job, a new project, or a helpful charity.

Where were you, Mr. Fiscal Responsibility, when Bush was racking up his budget deficits of the last 8 years, while cutting taxes for the wealthy?
Did Bush even have a budget?
I know he didn't have a budget when he railroaded those big tax cuts through Congress.
After 911, Bush said "I guess I hit the trifecta" and fiscal responsibility went down a rat hole along with billions of wasted taxpayer dollars.
Where were you then, Mr. Righteousness?

The GOP rubber stamp Congress gave Bush everything he asked for and you conservatives said nothing about it.
Where were these conservative obstructionists when Bush was throwing taxpayer dollars away on no-bid contracts with Halliburton and others?
Where were you when Bush was dumping billions of taxpayer dollars into the Iraq war zone with no strings attached?
When the Pentagon announced they couldn't even account for $8 billion lost in Iraq, what did you have to say about that?
Is fiscal responsibility only for Democrats?

Any dollar taken from the private sector and spent in the public sector is one more dollar not contributing to a new job, a new project, or a helpful charity.

That's an absurd statement.
Don't lecture us about fiscal responsibility, Republicans.
You have no credibility in this area whatsoever.
You blew it big time.
Now get out of the way and let Democrats fix the mess you made.

Who are we listening to, Demarcates, Republicans, or God? If I am A Christian then I am A Christian First, and then, an American, etc.

I do believe in democracy, But We live in a country that was established as a Republic, which to me means we have laws that supersede democratic views. God's law was deeply incorporated into our republic, and God's laws have all that we need to hold our Republic together, so I choose to listen to God (Do the Right Thing).

"Pray not that God is on our side, but that we are on his side"
Unknown

Would I be right in assuming you desire the current budget process to be just, transparent and effective; and that we have an aggressive plan to reduce government debt? If so, could we shift the conversation?

Are you talking to me? Cuz I'm not a Republican by any stretch. In fact, all your complaints about GWB and the past eight years I agree with. So you're preaching to the choir, there.

Also, you may want to consider that the "change" we were promised should be more than what's left in our pockets. I was expecting budgetary change, too. But it looks like more of the same budget deficits, just for a different set of ideals.

As for the "absurd statement," go get an education in basic economics and you won't think it's that absurd. You may justify or legitimize a particular project, but it is a true statement.

Your absurd statement is based on the false premise that the public sector is not capable of creating new projects, new jobs or helping its citizens.
We are the government.
Think about it.

You're right in your assumption.
The topic at hand is reducing the budget deficit by eliminating wasteful 'defense' spending.
What would you like to talk about?

It is not absurd if you understand basic economics. You can hire somebody to do a job based on the profit made by others. If I take money from you, even legitimately, and use it to pay somebody to do something, I've certainly created a job, but it is at the expense of another person. I may have helped somebody, but it is at the expense of another person or group of persons.

"We are the government. Think about it."

I have. The phrase "we are the government" is a useful collective that enables an ideological camouflage to be thrown over the naked exploitative reality of political life. For if we truly are the government, then anything a government does to an individual is not only just, but is also not tyrannical; it is "voluntary" on the part of the individual concerned. Under this reasoning, then, Jews murdered by the Nazi government were not murdered, since "they were the government" (which was democratically chosen), and therefore anything the government did to them was only voluntary on their part. There is nothing sacrosanct about the majority; the lynch mob, too, is the majority in its own domain.

The question is do you , or do you not agree that we need to seriously cut the military budget of the US? This is the most harmful kind of government spending, is it not? Nothing good can come from it. we are not under military threat. You say you want the government to cut spending over and over but when a specific proposal is made of how and where to do it you mock and criticize. Bad form.

I am very happy to hear Jim saying this. I was beginning to worry that there is too little challenge to the new administration.

This is a moment when every move that strengthens the current model of corporate capitalism and unlimited usury is a move to corrupt and destroy representative democracy.

10 Simple things to Save America

1)Limit interest to 9%-12%

2)No more political rights or personhood rights for corporate business interests.

3)Universal single payer health care

4)Cut Military by 50 to 90%

5)No more secret government , no more secret government budgets(CIA, no more wars without Congressional declaration. No wars against things or words or political choices(Drugs, Terrorism, Communism) No financial or military aid to human rights violators.

6)Massive shift to live on the natural non polluting energy budget of Sun , Wind, Geothermal, Bio fuel. No nuclear, no coal. Steward oil with a view to preserving it's availability on a millenial time scale.

7)Shift agriculture to organic model, emphasizing labor and knowledge and local and health.

8)High quality education for all with equal respect for trades, agriculture, apprenticeship, as for academic training. High emphasis on modeling democratic process and community service.

9)Manufacturer's held to highest possible standards of safety, recycle-ability, environmental health, transparency of ingredients.

10)Same law for every citizen and everyone that comes before US courts. Restore constitutional limits on executive power. Complete accord of Military courts with constitution, Geneva accords, and US civil law. No secret killing , no secret lawbreaking.

You're not free, xfree.
You're trapped in a libertarian fantasy world.
Libertarianism makes you stupid.

We're all trapped in some ideology, so in that respect, you are correct. We're both "not free."

Funny you pointed out my name. It's the make/model of my snow skis from high school... just saw the connection!

Capable of helping its citizens? Yes.

Creating new projects and new jobs? At the expense of the private sector, sure. Except in cases like toll roads, where user fees are charged for a service provided, however, government depends on taking a percentage of income or wealth from others to do its own projects. Taxation does not create.

This is the best comment I have read. I don't agree with all. But I really have trouble with the focus and framing of most issues in the public debate. I don't know how to get to good administration of government and exercise of politics without a public able to outline how we want the fundamentals of our society to function--and where the varied levels of government fit into that.

And I know your comment is simply identifying 'ten things'--not a comprehensive framework for society/politics.

I appreciated Obama coming in with a set of ideas on issues the government has just been AWOL on. And it is scary watching the incapacity of the media and Congress to lay these things out for consideration.

Yes, I do wish military spending would be cut, if you must ask.

I don't agree with all your ten items, though the results you hope for with them I'm sure we'd agree. It's the methods we'd disagree. Unfortunately some of them require reconfiguring people's hearts and attitudes toward fellow mankind, which cannot be done by legislation, and if attempted to be done by legislation is in danger of violating respect for fellow man. I don't have all the solutions, either, so I wouldn't expect you to have them (though of course we must seek them).

Eh, what the heck. Here's where we agree:
2, 4, 5 (not sure about the % but "heavily" would be nice), half of 6, 9 (not sure how you do this, but I'm for accountability), and 10

My thoughts on the rest would just dovetail into a big argument. Suffice it to say we have more in common than appearances would normally depict.

Do you subscribe to the nonsense that taxation is theft by the government?

I posted this link on another thread for you and nuclearferret:
http://sethf.com/essays/major/libstupid.php

I did this so you might get a sense of how silly and stupid libertarian pronouncements appear to the rest of us who don't live in your libertarian fantasy world.

Did you read it?

I would suggest interacting with some libertarian scholars such as Hayek, von Mises, and other (older) philosophers and economists. They aren't gods, of course, but they are not stupid. To call them stupid is naive because there are great thinkers who have thought much more about these things than you or I have. Blindly following libertarian principles DOES make you stupid.

It's rather difficult 'interacting' with long dead economists but I have read von Mises, Hayek and the so-called Austrian School. I agree they were great thinkers in their day.
I certainly don't think they're stupid and would never call them stupid, as you have insinuated.
However, the economic landscape is far different now than it was when these libertarian precursors were at the top of their games.
If you visit the Ludwig von Mises Institute website: http://mises.org
you get the impression you've opened a time capsule.
I agree that blindly following libertarian principles will make you stupid.
And anyone issuing dogmatic libertarian pronouncements universally applied to contemporary situations should be prepared to defend against the arguments presented by Seth Finkelstein in his essay "Libertarianism Makes You Stupid".
http://sethf.com/essays/major/libstupid.php

I'm very pleased to hear you've at least read them. It's impressive, actually. Kudos to you. When I read some of their articles, I get the distinct impression that they believe in principles that are timeless, not just relative to a certain day. After all, Hayek won a Nobel in the 1970s for economics; surely the 70s weren't THAT much different from our economic situation today. I don't think economic landscapes changing means that principles and basics of economics change. Supply and demand is a fundamental of scarcity, no matter what economic system. The business cycle explanation of booms and busts is still accurate (how else could the Austrians have predicted all of the booms and busts since before the Great Depression?).

Essentially, the Austrian School is committed to the promotion of a society based on non-aggression, and from there its tenets fall. Applied consistently, non-aggression is a very Kingdom-centric notion-I'd say Jesus went further than the Austrians and didn't include self-defense as a legitimate purpose of aggression, as most libertarians do.

But I digress. Seriously, I am glad you've read them. It certainly makes me appreciate what you have to say, though honestly it's kinda annoying that you post that same link on just about every comment you make. So let me be a hypocrite: visit my website, www.liveloud.net, and interact with me there. It's Disqus-enabled, which is nice for replies.

Had a feeling there there were some points of agreement. Interesting how much. I would like to see More GP writers outline a list of major political goals so we could see the spectrum of thinking and points of agreement and disagreement. It is confusing when too much is implied or assumed.

xfree,

I visited your website and found it to be stuffed, chock-a-block full of libertarian propaganda. Frankly, it's a great example of the widely noted libertarian lack of intellectual curiousity.
The anti Social Security screed by overexposed airhead, John Stossel, is factually incorrect in many ways and massively stupid.

Are you aware of the many other Nobel economists besides Freidrich Hayek?
Have you studied any of them?
Have you even read Hayek?
Hayek influenced both Ronald Reagan (but I doubt Reagan ever read Hayek), his Budget Director, David Stockman and of course, Margaret Thatcher.
What we are witnessing today is the collapse of Reaganomics -- supply side, laissez faire capitalism.
Did you know that Hayek himself warned of the dangers of laissez faire capitalism:

"probably nothing has done so much harm to the liberal cause as the wooden insistence of some liberals on certain rules of thumb, above all of the principle of laissez-faire capitalism"

I suggest you broaden your knowledge of economics before issuing any more dogmatic libertarian pronouncements on the God's Politics blog.
Also I suggest you read Seth Finkelstein's essay, "Libertarianism Makes You Stupid".

Here's my number 1 priority:

MEDIA REFORM:

Democracy needs an informed citizenry to succeed.
We wouldn't be in the mess we're in now if we'd had an informed citizenry.
Our perennially divided and confused electorate has been following corrupted, incompetent leadership who routinely lie to us over the corrupted public media.

Reforming the nervous system of our democracy is the key to getting America back on our feet and working smart again.

MEDIA REFORM will take unstinting courage and resolution on the part of our leadership. This is what we should do:

1. Election campaigns for public responsibility shall be publicly financed.

2. Qualified candidates for public office shall be provided with reasonable access to free bandwidth/airtime to communicate their ideas with the public -- based on equal time for competing candidates.

3. New regulations affecting licenses for the right to broadcast over the publicly owned electromagnetic spectrum will require broadcast networks and major internet portals to restructure their business models around the new regulations.

4. Campaign contributions from private individuals and corporations shall be strictly regulated.

These measures are intended to eliminate the enormous commercial profiteering and corruption of our democratic process which makes us:
"DUMB DOWN AMERICA".

Money is not free speech

MEDIA REFORM REQUIRES NO TAXPAYER DOLLARS FOR IMPLEMENTION!

GET SMART AMERICA!