Gene Frenkle Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Freedom ain't free, but there's also the basic human nature of helping people as they walk into a slaughterhouse to gain their freedom. Rwanda is a perfect example. Did the genocide really aid the freedom movement? This coming from you...so you're willing to spend your tax dollars to help the downtrodden as long as they're not lazy Americans? Is our deficit not large enough? Are our taxes not high enough? Spend, spend, spend??? I'm all for helping in situations like Libia and Rwanda. I'm just surprised at how much rationalization I see on this board when it comes to entitlement spending in the USA vs. military spending abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 This coming from you...so you're willing to spend your tax dollars to help the downtrodden as long as they're not lazy Americans? Is our deficit not large enough? Are our taxes not high enough? Spend, spend, spend??? I'm all for helping in situations like Libia and Rwanda. I'm just surprised at how much rationalization I see on this board when it comes to entitlement spending in the USA vs. military spending abroad. I'm willing to remove the guy that's murdering them. Beyond that...I'm happy with them settling their own issues. The difference is the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Frenkle Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I'm willing to remove the guy that's murdering them. Beyond that...I'm happy with them settling their own issues. The difference is the difference between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome. I'm all for both to one degree or another, so you'll get no argument from me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 I'm all for both to one degree or another Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GG Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 This coming from you...so you're willing to spend your tax dollars to help the downtrodden as long as they're not lazy Americans? Is our deficit not large enough? Are our taxes not high enough? Spend, spend, spend??? I'm all for helping in situations like Libia and Rwanda. I'm just surprised at how much rationalization I see on this board when it comes to entitlement spending in the USA vs. military spending abroad. I'm for keeping a very strong military because not only is it one of the enumerated powers in the constitution, it is also a major factor in maintaing USA's economic might. A strong military maintains the dollar's role as a reserve currency and in a sense pays for itself. So there are several arguments that you're touching - one, is it ok to use US military power to further USA's interests abroad and two, does the US spend too much on the military? First, throughout its history very few presidents & congressmen have been shy in letting the army walk the front line for USA. If anything, the US had gotten more insular (to a degree) once it reached the Pacific Ocean. But the simple fact that USA's interests included other sovereign lands that you could walk to versus taking a boat or a plane does not change the imperialistic history of this country. And personally, I hope that it doesn't, because no matter how much you may resent it, it's still the best place in the world to be born in and to emigrate to. Second, military spending as % of GDP can be maintained at under 5% and be effective. Even with the spending on two wars, the percentage is lower than it was during the Cold War. The military budget was decimated in the Clinton ears and I can make an argument that a false sense of security caused some of the problems we're seeing now. But of course, whenever you have a behemoth that takes up 5% of the budget, there's plenty of room to cut costs and defense should be the logical place. Yet when rational measures are proposed to cut defense waste and eliminate dinasaur programs, you have a phalanx of opposition (from both sides). But compare that to the fight over entitlement spending which is set to overtake one third of GDP and continue to grow exponentially, that's where people are saying that reform needs to be had. So you can see why you cn argue for spending on strong defense and be very concerned about other spending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 So, a thread about possible candidates in the Republican field managed to devolve into talking about the mid-east uprisings.... Back on track, it sounds all but certain that Newt Gingrich 2.0 is going to be declaring his run in the next few weeks (some are speculating it could be as early as next week). He's got a tough row to hoe even in the Republican bloc. A recent UNH poll shows 41 percent favorability / 39 percent unfavorability among NH party members... numbers that aren't out of line with his polarization of popularity in the late '90s. He is reportedly wooing religious party members --- he converted to Catholicism a while ago --- and is running on his record of being the main actor in balancing the federal budget. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UConn James Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Mitt Romney announced his Presidential Exploratory Committee this afternoon. Link w/ a short video statement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
/dev/null Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Mitt Romney announced his Presidential Exploratory Committee this afternoon. Link w/ a short video statement. Snowballs chance to beat Obama Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Tom Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Snowballs chance to beat Obama Racist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gene Frenkle Posted April 11, 2011 Share Posted April 11, 2011 Racist. Evolution-denying Mormon. Not you, Mitt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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