Show of Hands

Ha last comment

should have been our dirty laundry....

most of us can think for ourselves. once I found out the bulk of people on this app are 14 or15 I am going to quit the blogging. this is for the younger folks to find out and express their views. we mature folks don't need to share are dirty laundry with kids.

do over; I have no view of how soldiers should or shouldn't be. who does think the military is the answer for everything? you are to wrapped up thinking everything fits in a neat little box.

If DOD stopped a fraction of its waste, fraud, and abuse, they would probably save 50% of their budget. I'm very supportive of the military but they spend money unwisely all the time. For example, they will spend billions on a weapon they know they will never use.

@jopat very sorry that I don't conform to your stereo-type of a soldier. I'm proud of my service, but that doesn't mean I think there's a military solution to everything. I believe mil service is *a* high calling, but research scientists deserve even more respect.

Dit250, we should cut the spending on the military because they don't need a constant stream of money, if they already have the guns they don't need more to buy more guns.

Katy I could not agree more. Although I believe welfare should be monitored more closely. I am so tired of seeing people on welfare wearing the hottest clothes, shoes, and driving nice cars. Give it to the people that really need the extra help.

We need to cut welfare.Eduction should be one of the last things to be cut not the first.

DoOver; I believe you would see the worst in everyone. you might be a female but I am not. just like I find it hard to believe you served in a branch of the armed forces.

@jopat I thought that was a Freudian slip. You strike me as someone who's polite to browns but double checks the locks on her car when they're around.

The security of our nation is the last place to be cutting costs...yikes people.

I apologize for the word browns it should have been home growns, I didn't x out the spell check.

I continue to find it amazing that immigrants still to this day get here and make a great life for themselves. we continue to have home browns that act like someone owes them something. despite Obama and the left wing you can still do gran things in this countryif you apply yourself!

@murphy2448 you're killing me. Hard work, determination, and education don't guarantee prosperity. For a poor kid, the equation requires some really good luck. Expecting all poor kids to get ahead will require that you also sprinkle libertarian magic dust on top of the luck.

@ahg1996 you comment misses the point of what research is. You start research not knowing whether or not a thing will work, or which of 3 options will work best. That's why you do research. Sure, some research projects are silly or wasteful, but you can't paint them all with a broad brush.

Are you aware that the US spends millions of dollars on experimenting and developing weapons that the majority if troops don't even use? I.e the daisy cutter. We'd be okay if we cut a little, our gov just has to learn to cut back $ like the rest of us have since they created this mess!

Murphy so you are alright with starving the civilian!you are crazy! Hope we don't see you on the news!nnot fox of course because they would twist it to make sense right? Oh yes you don't have cable or electricity o forgot !idiot

@Vegas- the armies don't stop fighting just because their pay gets cut. They pass the cut down to the soldier, by lowering the military budget we will effectively give our service men and women a lesser check every month. So yes you want to kill the soldier by way of starvation.

Murphy there you go putting words in people's mouths. Do we need to be in Iraq, afganistan,or lybia? What about the other 100+ countries we have a military presence in? Don't try to jump to conclusions so fast. Believe it or not your mind reading trick need work.

we spend on our military to defend ourselves from which enemy? Chinese Russians. or 20 terrorist? if the answer is terrorist then should have more police/investigator looking for criminals? the JSF, b-2 and all the aircraft carriers won't help.... unless we are really going to kill "them" all.

@Vegas- why would you suggest taking pay away from military families in times of war? A they not important to you? Do they not deserve every single benefit and dollar that they get? IMO, they deserve a hell of a lot more. Democrats only care about votes, not our service men and women.

Murphy when we have slashed education,ss,and Medicare it is alot. There is waste in every aspect of government but not having even the discussion of defense possible is ridiculous.your rules or your taking the ball home is not constructive

Compared to 1.5+ trillion spent on entitlements.

@Vegas- oh...the 600 billion dollar budget, yeah that's really digging our hole a lot deeper.

Murphy I was talking about the defense budget. I didn't word it very well.

"The American people would never knowingly vote for socialism; but under the guise of liberalism, they would adopt every fragment of the socialist platform until one day America would be Socialist without knowing how it came about." Norman Thomas

We should only cut negative 250%

I don't need a gov't agency saying "it's ok little buddy, we'll make it all better. Here's some money we took from that big bad businessman to get you along". Hard work, determination, and an education is all that is needed to prosper.

@Vegas- a billion? Try a trillion and a half! Military spending is 2.5 X's less than that! I came from a poverty ridden family, I was also taught That I was the only person who could better myself. So I worked, saved, moved 857 miles from home, and am no in college fully supporting myself.

@murphy I agree on limits on any welfare/public assistance but what will spending more than almost a billion dollars get us? How about the right come down off your high horse and address real issues. Starving the poor out and building military any more in counter productive

@Vegas- that's ludicrous, we'll never end up like NKorea (unless the extreme left continue to promote socialism). Dependency is what welfare programs promote, nothing more. There are a handful of people who don't abuse it, if not gone, it should a have a time limit on which a person can receive it

@Murphy your line of thinking will turn us into a NKorean type state. The poor die off and the top eschalon get rich and we have millions in armed forces ready to eradicate anyone who disagrees. We are past roman times and should concentrate on our own problems first

We spend 2.5 times more on entitlements than we do on military, that must change. We should only have Medicare, all the others are draining our economy.

Wow, Texas voted majority "yes"! I think they misunderstood the question?!?

Can we spend the 25% on education?

We have our own oil,drill aby drill,damn the echology.no wonder it is sooooo expensive to drill with all the EPA rules.

Iran has oil so I guess were going oin soon!

@vegas, agreed

@kenny12
Maybe if we weren't spending so much on foreign countries we could create more jobs at home by investing in our dilapidated infrastructure. For example.

Why don't we get out of 2nd the unjust wars we are in? Why is it we are sooo concerned with human rights in Libya? People have been dying by the millions due to wars and genocide but we turn the other cheek. Could it be the large oil reserves in Libya? Kinda strange how it seems to work out

yes. only if the cuts are done with e blade of the constitution. across the board cuts will hurt us bad.

@rpanul. We can spend all the money in the world educating our children but what are they going to do for a job as few exist out there.

We spend more money each year on defense than we do on educating our children! That MUST change if we are to have any hope of remaining the best country in the world.

@PearlyGate
Maybe we shouldn't focus on cutting those benefits, but rather cut frivolous spending like the 3 wars that are going nowhere. There would still be plenty of military opportunities to pay for college even if we weren't at war!

poking heads into other's business is not a military decision. it is political. change spending in all areas of government to make saving money rewarded.

A lot of people join the army for benefits they get afterwards, now if those benefits went away, would those people still feel obligated to join the army?

right to bear arms is aimed toward americans for a militia. not for americans to become soldiers. militia's fight and stand up against govt. not really fight FOR them.

spending this much on defence is exactly the goal of terrorism, we waste money and we all stay scared, so all u die hard american terrorist hating tea baggers should agree, overspending and fear is exactly the goal of terrorism, to cause terror

Wow and this from a mostly republican crowd. So lets do it, get the heck out of our two wars and dramatically reduce our debt