CATO's Defense Spending Cuts!!

CATO Institute just released a great video of other "Defense" Budget Cuts!

The US Industrial Military Complex and It's Stranglehold on the US Economy

The United States has at it's disposal one the largest best equipped militaries the world has ever known. A Navy that rules the seas, an Air Force that dominates the skies, and land forces that have no equal. It is the primary force backing the UN as well as NATO and can be used by both treaty organizations without consent of the US Congress even though the Constitution never grants this power to the government. The United States Military has been the 'Police Force' of the world since the end of the second World War. Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War, War in Afghanistan, War in Iraq, and these are just the major campaigns, not included are the CIA assassinations of third world leaders, bombings, UN "Peace Keeping" missions, and militarization of forces around the world (including the Taliban fighting in Afghanistan in the 80's). According to the Pentagon the US has around 865 bases spread throughout the world. If you count all the military 'bases' in Iraq and Afghanistan currently the number would be close to 1,000 bases around the world. The US accounts for 95% of all military bases on foreign soil. The Sun never sets on the US Military! The US has entered into many conflicts across the globe under the pretense of protecting our Interest but in the end we have destroyed our reputation, armed our enemies, lost American lives, spent trillions of dollars and interfered in other countries business. The Military Industrial Complex in the US is a monster with insatiable appetite. It is not unusual to hear of military projects running hundreds of millions of dollars over budget with the Pentagon giving no oversight whatsoever. Stated plainly there is no accountability and anytime anyone points this out the brass in Washington pull out the Patriotism card and accuse naysayers of trying to bring our country to it's knees. The RAH66 Comanchee was cancelled in 2004 before it went into production, so we do not have one helicopter from this project yet it cost the American taxpayers $6.9 billion!

China has the worlds largest active military with 2.3 million people. With a reserve force of 800,000 thousand. The US military has 1.5 million active personnel with 1.45 reserve personnel. China spends $114.3 billion a year on it's military. The US spends $687.1 billion a year on it's military. The US is number one in the world on military spending and China is a far away second. If you add nations 2-20 s military budgets together the sum is around 660 billion. We spend $27 billion more a year on our "Defense" budget than the rest of the top 20 a year combined. If this doesn't say something about the corruption in the Pentagon and Military Industrial Complex I'm not sure you can be convinced. All these statistics also do not count the amount of money the State's spend on their Defense. I'm sure it would be even more staggering and would probably come close to a trillion dollars a year on defense.

All this in a time when the US has racked up 14+ trillion and growing in debt it seems we need to drastically cut our 'Defense' budget. Running a Empire is expensive and we don't have the money to do it any longer. I want to outline a plan that would drastically cut our expenditures.

* Immediately end all military aid and surplus sales to any country including Israel. From this point forward if you want to buy US Military equipment you do so at full price.

* Immediately end all ongoing Military operations including the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya

* End NATO and NATO funding. NATO was created to fight the USSR. Now 2 decades later we are still funding it long after it's mission is complete

* Stop paying for other nations defense. This includes Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Israel.

* Close 90% of foreign Military bases, especially the bases we have to pay rent to use.

* Require future development projects to be on time or suffer monetary punishments.

* Use the sales from Military equipment to fund future military projects, to help offset the costs.

* Spend more on military salaries, and spend more on Veterans benefits, including healthcare and retirement benefits.

* Cut United Nations funding and stop using our Military for "peace" keeping missions which only hurts our reputation around the world.

* Stop policing the world and end our meddling in the affairs of other Sovereign nations.

* Spend some of the money cut from "defense" and start repairing US infrastructure instead of Iraq's and other nations.

These are just a few of the things we could do to shrink our "Defense" spending and help balance the budget, end our deficits, and reduce the size of government. I believe the ideal Defense budget for the US would be around $120 billion. The time has come for Americans to ask if having the worlds largest military but no money to operate said military is worth it. I think the answer must be a resounding NO!

So It Begins!!

As much as I'm not looking forward to what will be another long 17 months or so, it is once again time to stand with Ron Paul for President in 2012. Is he my perfect candidate? No... but I'll post a more in depth blog about that at a later date. Paul has done a marvelous job at spreading liberty and his campaign which emphasizes ending the Wars (within 3 months), Ending the Drug War, Ending the Federal Reserve, immediately ending the Patriot Act and Guantanamo Bay, and a general respect for the Constitution is something almost universally lacking in Washington or in Government at all. Paul also understands separation of Church and State and treads that line extremely well! So bring it on... I'm ready to defend Liberty in 2011-2012!

BTW: vote Ron Paul in the Primary, if you have never heard of him please Google Ron Paul!