With Air Force Secretary Michael Donley already condemning the notion of delaying the expensive and largely useless F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon seems to be pretty solidly together on the need to protect their budget, the largest military budget in the history of mankind.
But even shills need a little help now and again, and to that end Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is poised to issue a “special guidance” to officials on how to “convey in broad, strategic terms” how dangerous any cuts are.
The guidance comes in the wake of last week’s Aerospace Industries Association meeting, which decided on a plan to lobby Congress against any cuts to the record military budget, arguing it was “cut to the bone.”
It was initially believed that, in the face of massive budget deficits, the military budget would at least be debated by the supercommittee. Increasingly, however, the forces arrayed against it have become so shrill in their opposition that it seems unlikely the committee will even broach the subject.
The US is in a police state/military dictatorship. An indication of this is the military officers and civilian officials routinely speaking publicly about military policy.
For presidential candidates however, (except Ron Paul), talking about the wars is forbidden. One wouldn't even know there are several wars going on if the debates were the only source of information.
The United States is slowly destroying itself.
It is unconscionable that the USG insists on spending record amounts of money on warmongering at a time when it cannot keep the promises it made to its own citizens regarding social security and medicare. At a minimum the military budget should be cut in half. All the wars, both covert and overt should be ended. All troops and mercenaries should be brought home. The empire of bases should be closed for business. All foriegn aid, including aid to Israel, should be cut. Even if all this done it will not change anything regarding the solvency of social security or medicare. The welfare state has long been morally bankrupt. Now it is also financially bankrupt. Before cuts are made that will cause a great deal of suffering to many Americans who naively believed the promises of corrupt politicians, the American empire and American militarism should be abolished.
Pannetta's rules or Panetta Rules? I think the later is more appropriate and descriptive of the situation.
We spend over a Trillion dollars a year on this. This means, if we were to really CUT back to say what we need to defend ourselves from the Mexicans and Canadians, we could think about doing any or all of the following.
— Cut taxes for working and middle class tax payers.
— Make major investments in infrastructure such a new schools and roads and bridges worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
— Have major programs to fight hunger and poverty worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
— extend unemployment assistance to Americans who still can't find jobs.
— Large aid to Americans facing foreclosure to help keep them in their homes, which by the way would help the real estate markets to stabilize.
We are constantly told by our Presidents and our Congress, whether its Dem or Repub, that we can't afford anything that ever helps ordinary American citizens. Well, this is where our money is going. We are spending obscene amounts on this Pinky and Brain scheme to try to take over the world. The sad joke is that we don't need to take over the world, but could live in a better country paying less taxes if we would only stop trying.
In 2012, its time to throw all of these fools out of office and elect someone who actually is on our side.