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the Office of Management and Budget put military spending at 23% of the 2009 budget. And while it is the largest single expense in the budget, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid spending are 39% of the budget.
I need a source for 80% of the $12 trillion being defense related.
Understand, I don't disagree we spend WAY too much on defense. But we need to be careful with our numbers so we are not accused of dubious claims.
For the record, given the power, I would:
1) Scrap the Marines and Air Force as redundant. The Army has more planes than the Air Force, and the Navy has almost as many. We won World Way II with the Navy and the Army Air Corp, and I don't see any reasons for a separate branch of the military just for planes. The Marines cost too much. We can still call naval-based infantry marines, but the entire branch should be absorbed into the Navy.
2) Outlaw ALL outsourcing of military operations, or as I call it paid mercenaries.
3) Eliminate land based and bomber based atomic weapons. The only effective weapons we have have are sub-based. Tracking submarines is hard, and expensive. Everyone knows where our missile bases are, so they'll be the first things destroyed in a real nuclear war. Bomber-based weapons are a joke, since an air-burst atomic weapon allows you to attack an area you suspect contains bombers without having to know precisely where they are. At the very LEAST, the military can pick two systems.
4) Refuse to fund corporate weapons development. If you want to sell us a weapon, build it and show it to us. If it works and makes sense on the battlefield (and the price is right), we'll buy it. If not, you just wasted a whole bunch of money.
5) Fire generals who fail to keep waste under control.
6) Forbid, under pain of imprisonment, any government employee who works in the military or procurement from working for a defense related corporation for ten years after leaving the public sector.
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