Razzum frazzum...

[averygoodun42]

In talking about the budget cuts the military is facing, the cited impacts will be: "less training for warfighters heading to Afghanistan, fewer ships and aircraft and possible furloughs for the military's civilian employees."

Not, oh, say, cutting back on R&D (which is where most of the money goes, i.e. into $75K+ base salaries for engineers and such, not to mention the pockets of the wealthy who invest in weapons production (which is where the real money is made)), but on the people who make a pittance. On things that will endanger lives. On things that will actually INCREASE the government's financial woes in the long run.

*holds breath in rage*

This is (yet one more reason) why I am NOT proud to be an American. When more than 50% of the discretionary budget* (50 FUCKING PERCENT!!!!) goes to defense spending, and still our military personnel are underpaid, overworked and will be the ones penalized if/when budgets get cut.

It is SHAMEFUL!

(And this is leaving aside the fact that we spend more on the military than the rest of the world's countries combined...)

* The discretionary budget leaves out medicare and social security funding which are actually TRUSTS that we pay into, and, supposedly, the government can't use in any other way. Except they do. *razzum frazzums some more*

Comments

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

On the bright side, at least R&D may one day bring us Iron Man suits.

Seriously though, yes, this definitely sucks for our military personnel and is bad news for just about everybody except the defense industry. When I think of how many average-salaried jobs updating our infrastructure and bringing broadband to the whole country could be created with even a fraction of the defense budget, it makes me want to gnaw on something.

[averygoodun.livejournal.com]

The stuff coming out of R&D now is pretty incredible, actually, and not too far off from that. The thing that REALLY gets my goat about that, though, is that the government pays private/publicly held companies to develop this stuff, and then those companies get to sell that stuff the US paid for to... anyone. Anyone at all. Including our enemies, who often have very well-heeled backers *coughSaudiArabiacough* And all for a profit that the tax-payers subsidized. (GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!)

*razzum frazzums even more*

Did you read the recent Newsweek article about our crumbling infrastructure? I was actually surprised to see a mainstream article about it. It is getting pretty bad, though.

[mundungus42.livejournal.com]

I didn't read it, but boy, I'm glad it's getting attention. I'm seriously hoping for four more years and a new WPA at this point.