I don't know if i didn't really notice them and they were there all along but the American Republican Party does seem to have more than its fair share of Whackjobs.
I was watching an interview with a Tea Party member and realised within 5 seconds of her opening her mouth and ranting about nobody wanting Obamacare that she was insane, absolutely and certifiably mad.
I'm sure there are Democrats who are just as crazy as George W Bush, Sarah Palin, John McCain, Michele Bachmann and the laughably deranged Tea Party members but i do look at the right wing of American politics and think to myself that if any of these people ever got elected, America and the rest of us are doomed.
The financial crisis has been kicked into the long grass and the sticking plaster they have laid across it will have to be removed by February 2014 when it can all start again but while all the shouting has been about raising the amount of America debt, i have not heard anybody saying anything about reducing it.
The bottom line is America, like most countries, pays out more than it brings in so it will always be in deficit and that needs to be tackled.
While the right wingers will rant and froth at the mouth about the size of the American Civil Service and blame the poor and unemployed and look at ways to reduce the already paltry amount they receive, there are many more ways that America can cut what it spends and the first thing to look at should be military spending.
The $6 trillion spent on the ineffective War on Terror has left a massive hole in the financial spreadsheet as has the massive cost of military spending.
In 2011, the U.S defense budget was $664.84 billion which accounts for approximately 43% of global military spending.
The 2012 budget is 9 times larger than the military budget of China and is more than the next twenty largest military spenders combined.
We know that America gets involved in wars on a frequent basis, as far back as i can remember it seems to be permanently preparing for the next one, but does America need such a huge military presence? To put it another way, is it morally right that it should continue spending as much as 5% of its GDP on the military while arguing over the introduction of healthcare that will benefit as many as 60 million of the poorest Americans?
Then there is military aid it hands out to other countries, $5 billion a year to countries including Israel, Egypt, Colombia, Pakistan, Jordon, Mexico and Poland.
It boggles my mind that American leaders will threaten to force the country into shutdown and recession over helping people but nobody is saying hang on, what about if we cut the amount of money spent on weapons and systems that have no justification from any threat that we are likely to face?
As the Tea Party nutjobs will probably say, if they didn't spend it on that, they would probably blow it on something frivolous like the healthcare for the poor and nobody wants that.
2 comments:
All the folks you noted have been elected to spots including president, governor, and senator so you are doomed. I’m more concerned by the likes of Pelosi and Feinstein who treat working people as if they exist for the benefit of the government.
The Tea Party members that you call deranged want the USA to reduce involvement in the affairs of other nations. They are also advocates of fiscal corrections. Those are not deranged ideas. Each house member represents 750,000 people including the tea party whackjobs as you label them.
The reason for the government shutdown was to get real action to reduce a government that has been growing in its involvement in our daily lives and in cost for 80 years. Obama care is particularly irritating to many not for its motivation, but because it is major legislation that will have decades of impact, that was rushed into law while the democrats had a very narrow and temporary majority in the house and the senate. When 51% create a law, do you really expect the 49% to just accept it and move on? I hope not, because in a democracy the minority has the right to become the majority and change the law, as long as they follow the law to do it.
All those military spending numbers you share are meaningless. The important question is why spend so much? Answer: to protect many nations. I believe Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea would be taken by force within a few years if the USA wasn’t able to offer viable protection. I’m also of the thinking that several South American nations would be at risk. If not for the USA, Saddam would have invaded Saudi Arabia in addition to Kuwait. I think we spend too much on the military, but if we didn’t have a certain level of military power many of the “free” markets in the world would be consumed at the point of a bayonet.
Is it moral to let several nations and hundreds of millions of people be the victims of Chinese, North Korean, and Iraqi aggression? When you consider what China is doing with Japan and Taiwan do you really think the Chinese would restrain themselves?
Do I want Americans to live in poverty? If that is what they choose, sure. Americans living at the poverty level ($12,500) make 34 times as much as the average human in poverty ($365).
q
"The important question is why spend so much? Answer: to protect many nations!"
The correct answer is to try to gain total control of the world, Lucy.
The Americans are motivated entirely by self-interest and have been since their unfortunate inception. They love war, it feeds their industries, makes their rich richer, allows them to bully the world while, hypocritically, they claim they care about human rights and freedoms. They lie!
The recent debt ceiling fiasco shows they couldn't run a chocolate wheel.
America is the major danger our world faces and fully deserve their 'Most Hated Nation' status!
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