upvote

points

by hvb24 hours ago |
comments
upvoteby mountainb4 hours ago|
next
[-]
Taxes in the US go to a cluster of major items. Medicare, other medical, Social Security, interest, VA benefits and veteran's medical care, federal spending on the indigent or disabled, and Defense. Those together are 94% of annual federal spending.

None of that spending is subject to that much debate; all the remaining "debate" is over the remaining 6%.

I don't think defense is really as discretionary as it seems. A lot of it is effectively bribing and menacing trading partners to keep trading with the US on favorable terms through cash transfers, provision of military equipment, training, and mutual defense pacts among other diplomatic agreements.

Japan didn't just decide on its own free will to become a pacifist country dedicated to exporting cheap, high-quality manufactured goods to the United States. General MacArthur did that.

reply
upvoteby Loughla3 hours ago|
parent|
next
[-]
Everything on your list but VA benefits and defense are very regularly called into question. Even VA benefits are questioned pretty regularly, but that tends to be put down pretty quickly.
reply
upvoteby beambot3 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
next
[-]
> A lot of it is effectively bribing and menacing trading partners

That's just a byproduct of propping up the military industrial complex; have to have conflicts to justify giving the primes sole-source cost+ contracts so they can meet their quarterly EPS targets.

reply
upvoteby yonaguska4 hours ago|
parent|
prev|
[-]
I think there is a lot of discord over medicare/medical, social security, and interest at least, but maybe I'm just in a bubble.
reply
upvoteby pjc504 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
And let's not forget: the voters back them on this.
reply
upvoteby Matl4 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
From what I know, the 'defense' industry has their production cleverly across all 50 states so that they're seen as one of the few sources of stable employment for most, sadly.
reply
upvoteby rtkwe3 hours ago|
parent|
[-]
It's not actually that many people in the grand scheme at ~1.1 million according to the CRS, but it is spread out very effectively so that massive cuts can be directly felt by any chosen House representative or senator. It's partially a capacity preservation system as well, for defense a nation wants to be able to produce a significant portion of it's military hardware needs in a war domestically and you need to keep those industries alive somehow against cheaper foreign producers so you have the Berry Amendment that requires clothing etc purchased by the DoD to only use US made materials.
reply
upvoteby FatherOfCurses3 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
And yet so much of the spending goes to big ticket items benefitting defense contractors while things that actually benefit the soldiers (better armor, better VA hospitals) go by the wayside.
reply
upvoteby dribbiy84 hours ago|
prev|
next
[-]
[dead]
reply
upvoteby herry64 hours ago|
prev|
[-]
[flagged]
reply