Posted on Sep 14, 2016
Is our country financing and spending money on things we should not?
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What are your thoughts in how we can reduce the budget or provide increased services through fiscal prioritization...?
Budget
Congress
Office of the President (POTUS)
Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 26
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Interesting that the lead graphic is Discretionary Spending and you have to select a different view to get to Total Spending. Sure military takes up a big % of discretionary spending but in reality its only 16% of our total budget, which seems reasonable. Question asks if we are spending on things we should not be, but everything on the graphic seems relevant to me. Could percentages change? For sure, especially in the interest on debt side, but that's largely a fixed cost based on past actions. This is the area where we should be looking to reduce the budget.
Know I'm going to get whacked for this, but also think there could be savings from ripping veteran medical care out from Veteran's Benefits and rolling it into Medicare & Health. Let the VA concentrate on all benefits other than health and the medical community concentrate on medical benefits for everyone. Yes, this means tearing down a huge entrenched bureaucracy but the savings and quality of service would increase IMO.
Know I'm going to get whacked for this, but also think there could be savings from ripping veteran medical care out from Veteran's Benefits and rolling it into Medicare & Health. Let the VA concentrate on all benefits other than health and the medical community concentrate on medical benefits for everyone. Yes, this means tearing down a huge entrenched bureaucracy but the savings and quality of service would increase IMO.
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LTC Paul Labrador
And the majority of military spending, surprisingly, is not made on expensive toys, but personnel costs (pay, retirement, health care, etc.)
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
MPCO Roger Collins. Perhaps it's because I live in Florida, but doctors around here love, and seek out, Medicare patients. Possible this isn't the case everywhere, but none of my friends have the problems you refer to.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
LTC Paul Labrador - That's the one that always surprises everyone when they complain about defense spending
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COL William Oseles
Interest on the National Debt will keep growing as long as we have Deficit Spending and we are not paying off the debt faster than it is growing.
But for the last 8 years we have kept hearing about how the Debit is being reduced rather than the rate of debt increase is being reduced. And it was loudly proclaimed in 2007 that increasing the Debt Ceiling was unpatriotic.
Funny what a change in administration will do to the rhetoric.
But for the last 8 years we have kept hearing about how the Debit is being reduced rather than the rate of debt increase is being reduced. And it was loudly proclaimed in 2007 that increasing the Debt Ceiling was unpatriotic.
Funny what a change in administration will do to the rhetoric.
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Yes! Anything spent by the Feds that is not related to an enumerated power is a waste! Taxing citizens of the several States to give money back to the several States is stupid. Also, and this may not be popular, we should not be paying for forces in foreign countries such as Great Britain, Japan, Korea, Germany, etc. Lastly, we should end the War on Drugs and let the States regulate their sales thus eliminating the crime caused by the black markets.
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Beyond question....colossal expenditures on the F-35, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), war in Afghanistan and Iraq where the ends doesn't justify the costs, foreign aid to undeserving nations, and whole host of other bloated programs that consistently waste money. We have real infrastructure problems, homelessness, not to mention environmental issues (i.e. toxic water sites) that require attention. It's never been a revenue issue. ...it's a SPENDING problem!
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MSG (Join to see)
agee we need to stop sending billions of dollars to other countries when our own is in disrepair, technology costs if one ship or piece of equipement means less sm's and still continues to provide security, and prevents the loss of other millitary personell, ok,
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