The United States of America, we are told repeatedly these days by the parasitical political class, is about to stumble and fall over the proverbial fiscal cliff, which simply means that, on January 1, 2013, federal income taxes will be restored to the levels they were during the Reagan and Clinton administrations, and there might be some modest spending cuts.
Sounds pretty scary, doesn’t it? But as I remember it, much of the Reagan administration and all the Clinton years were boom times for America. The stock market soared to unbelievable heights between 1982 and 2000. Unemployment levels were low and the economy was strong. Clinton actually left office with a deficit surplus.
It was the abysmal bumbling incompetence of George W. Bush which burst that bubble and started the U.S. down the path where we are today. Perhaps the worst of the numerous GWB economic blunders was to allow the annual U.S. military budget to almost double in just the last 10 years.
That is not only stupid, unnecessary and irresponsible on the part of our federal government, it’s unconscionable. It’s akin to just flushing $billions of taxpayer dollars down the national toilet every year, year after year. And there will be zero return on the “investment.” The spending does not make us safe.
What’s going on?
Right now the United States of America is financially supporting U.S military personnel in more than 130 nations overseas. I challenge you to even name 130 countries off the top of your head. Chances are that you can name any country except China, Iran, and North Korea, and the U.S. has soldiers occupying the place.
Yes, we Americans are occupying 900 military bases large and small in more than 130 countries across the globe – places like Kyrgyzstan, Aruba, Iceland, Indonesia, Kenya, Norway, Mongolia, Nepal, Gabon, Togo, Suriname, and Peru – not to mention major military activities in Belgium Japan, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Bahrain, Djibouti, South Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait and the U.K.
Why?
What is the threat to the American people which requires the presence of all this military might in all these obscure outposts?
There is no threat.
But that’s not stopping the parasitical politicians from spending more and more $billions on the military every year. Just this week the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly (98-0) approved a sweeping, $631 billion military spending bill. They called it a “defense bill” but that is a joke.
The legislation authorizes money for weapons, aircraft and ships and provides a 1.7 percent pay raise for military personnel. So it looks like there won’t be any fiscal cliff problems for the military next year, even though this bill actually would reduce projected military spending growth. And that’s why President Obama is threatening to veto it.
It would provide some $526 billion for the base defense budget, $17 billion for defense programs in the Energy Department and about $88 billion for the war in Afghanistan. House and Senate negotiators must reconcile their competing versions of the bill in the next few weeks.
The Senate saber rattlers also voted 92-6 to require the Pentagon to report to Congress on the ability of the U.S. military to impose a no-fly zone over Syria. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who has pushed for greater U.S. military involvement to end the Syrian civil war, sponsored the amendment. "If military action has to be taken to prevent sarin gas to be used, Congress has to be involved," he said.
So it looks like Syria will be the next Afghanistan and clearly no one, least of all Senator McCain, has the faintest idea whether the Syrian rebels will turn out to be better for the people there than the man in power now.
All we know is that a lot more taxpayer money is going to be flushed down the military toilet: at least $1,728,767,123 every day.
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