🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Garland wrote:
> On 2/9/2018 9:28 AM, jmfbahciv wrote:
>> Scott Lurndal wrote:
>>> jmfbahciv <See....@aol.com> writes:
>>>> Dave Garland wrote:
>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Yes, but this Congress is already using it to lower personal income
>>>>> taxes for the rich. Unfortunately, it's a one-time gob of money, and
>>>>> the next years they'll either have to raise taxes, or cut stuff like
>>>>> the military and Social Security (and it's not likely to be the
military).
>>>>
>>>> Why do you think that?  Power will eventually shift to the Democrats and
>>>> they will continue gutting the military like they were during the
>>>> Obama admin.
>>>
>>> Military spending increased annually through the first half of the Obama
>>> administration, and declined _very slightly_ over the
>>> next four as the wars wound-down.   Hardly "gutting".  You really need
>>> to stop listening to Rush Limbaugh (or his local radio proxies).
>>>
>>> https://www.usgovernmentspending.com/defense_spending_analysis
>>>
>> Just because the spending increased, does not mean that the money
>> was being used to keep the military war-ready.  That's what I meant
>> by gutting.
>
> Fair point, if the money was being spent on big parades or overpriced
> equipment. But monster parades aren't happening yet (give Trump some
> time), and defense contractors are always going to make out like
> bandits, because Congress won't stand up to them. So what's your
> metric for "war-ready", if not gross money?

The existence of an inventory of replacement parts; tools required
for maintenance and servicing on-site at every site.  High morale
of troops.  Low dependency on contractors for the basic military
actions.  Less reliance on the National Guard for crucial special
[what's the word I want?] services.
>
> Mind you, whether or not they're "war ready", they're players in
> several wars in spite of that.

These aren't real wars where the goal is to win hard enough so
that the mindset of the opponent is changed.  Even the mindset
of the US population believes that a war is only WWI-style.
That's changed.

/BAH