We can have a reduced military and still have a strong military. What we spend is crazy, and most of it is not for true defense. |
Utter nonsense. The "Tea Party issues" are every bit as social as fiscal. Possibly more so. http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/10/05/130353765/new-poll-tea-party-overwhelmingly-christian-and-socially-conservative They're your garden-variety variety social conservative wingnuts only dressed up in a tri-corner hat--pretending to be sane. |
Can't think of a more succinct TP "argument". Rather than acutally marshalling facts, we get "READ TEH CONSTITUTION" in every case. Here's a fucking clue: we have a branch of government whose sole purpose is reading and interpreting the constitution. It's comprised of our nation's greatest constitutional scholars. It's called the Supreme Court. Look it up. "Constitutional" does not mean "fits my gut-level prejudices and personal policy preferences". Just so you know. |
Is your assertion that the "MAIN job" of our government is defense your personal opinion, or is it based on some research? If it's based on research, please provide a cite.
It's easy to point to instances of fraud and programs that you consider wasteful. Others would point to things that might've benefitted you and your husband and argue that those are wasteful. As they say, the plural of anecdote is not data. Just because there are stories of fraud, that doesn't mean that eliminating all fraud would make a significant difference. In 2012, 22 percent of the budget, or $773 billion, paid for Social Security. http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258 I couldn't actually find any estimates of the SS fraud rate online through a quick search, so if you've got some reasonable data on the quantity of fraud, I'd love to see it. But let's assume a fraud rate of 10%, which seems high to me, but I could be wrong. That's about 2% of Federal spending. To investigate fraud requires resources, so there's a cost to such investigation and recovery. It's also impossible to eliminate all fraud, because at some point you reach the level of diminishing returns. Let's say it's cost effective to recovery half the estimated fraud. That's 1% of the Federal budget. Certainly nothing to sneeze at, but not the kind of thing that will balance the budget.
While I doubt "several," here I do agree with you to some extent - the creation of DHS was a huge waste of money and all of those functions could be performed by other agencies. But, the functions still need to be performed. So the savings from eliminating DHS will not be 100% of the DHS budget - it would actually only be the number of staff that could actually be eliminated rather than being folded into other agencies. And some of those people would end up seeking unemployment, so that cost is just being shifted within the government, rather than being eliminated. |
With the exception of Clarance Thomas. |
Actually I find Thomas to be very consistent in his method of interpretation, although I disagree with his interpretation. Scalia on the other hand just finds a logic that fits the outcome he wants. |
Hello friend! Feel exactly the same!!! |
Consistent =/= "greatest constitutional scholars" |
Because the Republican party sold its soul to the Religious Right a while back. Wedge social issues motivate the hard core religious base, and those people turn out for primaries. It's easy to get people to be passionate about "values" issues, and when those people vote as a block any Republican candidate who wants to get out of the primary has to pander to them. |
No argument there. |
| I think the main problem Republicans have is that they put up listing RINOs like Cucinnelli. If a TRUE Republican were on the ticket thinks would have been different. |
Could be. Would you mind posting some of the positions that Cucinelli supported that you believe made him a RINO and the position a "TRUE Republican" would've taken? |
I think your sarcasm detection radar might be faltering there, pp. |
??? Are you being sarcastic? |
Yes, it's a medical issue. Bad clinics are not using them as they should. Which was the point of regulation. Congrats. Women just voted for unsafe abortion ala Gosnell. And politicians created Obamacare. The regulations are political. But that's ok? |