Tax Cuts Lead to Great Tax Revenue

[Watchman]

Ah. Priorities.

[Hurin_Rules]

Ah. Priorities.

I believe the US now spends slightly more than half (51%) of its budget on the military.

[Watchman]

My point exactly. And God only knows how much of that trickles off into accounts it should have no business in along the way.

That understanding would be wrong. The USA has a huge middle class- one that would increase if useless regulations and social programs that kept people stuck in poverty were done away with.

Not according to the charts I've seen over the years. The typical First World income-distribution scheme is roughly shaped like () - large and prosperous middle class, hence most of the total wealth in the middle part. The American ones invariably looked much more like the /\ \/ two-pyramid scheme characteristic of the Third World - large, poor underclass, extremely rich top layer.

As for "useless regulations and social programs that kept people stuck in poverty", stuff it. We've had those in abundance for decades over here and what *that* led to is virtual 100% literacy rate, at one brief point the virtual elimination of true poverty, and more prosperous middle class than you can shake a stick at. Heck, all those "useless social programs" were a major helper when people climbed the hill from poorly educated working stiffs to reasonably-comfortable middle-classers...
That your social security system is crap (which by all accounts the American one is) does not mean they all are, or have to be.

[Xiahou]

I believe the US now spends slightly more than half (51%) of its budget on the military.

Not even close.

if the tax cuts were such a good thing and brought in all this extra money, then why are all those programs getting slashed from the budget? Shouldn't the gov't be able to afford them now?

This year's budget is still bigger than last year's.

[Hurin_Rules]

Not even close.

Here are the sources:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:...a&ct=clnk&cd=7

What are your figures?

BTW, to put it in perspective, the US accounts for approximately half of all the military spending in the world:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:...a&ct=clnk&cd=5

Also, US military spending now accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending in the US budget(they were just discussing this on CNN, how discretionary defense spending has now hit a new high).

[Xiahou]

Here are the sources:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:...a&ct=clnk&cd=7

What are your figures?

BTW, to put it in perspective, the US accounts for approximately half of all the military spending in the world:

http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:...a&ct=clnk&cd=5

Also, US military spending now accounts for more than half of all discretionary spending in the US budget(they were just discussing this on CNN, how discretionary defense spending has now hit a new high).

First of all, I have some problems with your sources- not the least of which being, they're talking about the 2006 budget, not the 2007.

My figures can be arrived at very simply...

The budget submitted is for 2.77 trillion dollards, of which 439.3 billions is for the DoD. Simple math 493.3/2770=0.1780 Or, rounded up, 18%. link

So, I'd rather go with the numbers from the Washington Post than massaged numbers from a previous year dredged up by some anti-military site.

[Hurin_Rules]

First of all, I have some problems with your sources- not the least of which being, they're talking about the 2006 budget, not the 2007.

My figures can be arrived at very simply...

The budget submitted is for 2.77 trillion dollards, of which 439.3 billions is for the DoD. Simple math 493.3/2770=0.1780 Or, rounded up, 18%. link

So, I'd rather go with the numbers from the Washington Post than massaged numbers from a previous year dredged up by some anti-military site.

But that simple math omits several things. Firstly, it omits much of the spending that will be necessary for the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. This looks like it will be over $100 billion, and perhaps significantly more. It also leaves out $70 billion in veteran's benefits, and the vast outstanding expenses from past wars (represented as a percentage of the national debt).

[Xiahou]

So that makes it over 51%?