Secretary of Defense Gates: We're spending too much on defense.

[Mugsy]

Run time: 02:01 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrZ-X0apzfo   Posted on YouTube: May 09, 2010 By YouTube Member: BI30 Views on YouTube: 26   Posted on DU: May 09, 2010 By DU Member: Mugsy Views on DU: 1183

 
I feel vindicated in my support of Robert Gates for Secretary of Defense, who announced yesterday that our Defense Budget is too big and needs to be cut or we risk bankrupting the country. Gates has also recently come out against DADT and supports getting out of Iraq (he was also one of the people that convinced Bush-41 not to go into Iraq after the '90-'91 Gulf War.)

[boobooday]

1. This is the best thing I've heard all year.

Seriously.

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[Kolesar]

2. 9/11 opened a gusher of spending on the military

That is truly the defining concept.

[marmar]

3. Good to hear him say this, but......water is wet.

nt

[msongs]

4. lol $500 billion a year too much nt

[Better Today]

5. Except that another article around here says he want to cut troops wages and benefits

as opposed to actually reducing any of the wars or war toys budgets.

[MrMickeysMom]

10. True, in the mix, Veterans affairs should be considered...

Health care provisions for our Veterans are sorely lacking, unlike Congress's.

So, the argument can be made for all those Generals stationed, and Pentagon spending. Also, you must consider the military spending a la "bacon" for your district. Stop that, Congress. It's time we understood our industrial complex wearing a new set of bifocals.

Eisenhower was correct... beware of the Military Industrial Complex, which is alive and well, with a grip around the short hairs of U.S. congressional districts.

[AllyCat]

6. You don't say Secretary Gates!

Now if only Congress and the Pres would do something about it.

[dotymed]

7. It is encouraging

but it would have been great to hear Gates admit that a Universal, not for profit, health care system is the way to save huge amounts of money on everyones health care. Just like all other "civilized" nations have. Why should America, whose tax dollars have been used to invent many of the current medicines, pay the highest prices for medicines in the entire world? One of only hopes besides having a president with FDR economic values, is to unite and protest en masse, at every opportunity. We do not have much time left before it is irreversible.

[Stumbler]

8. Balls. Of. Steel.

He's my new favorite defense secretary.

[MrMickeysMom]

9. For President Obama, who likes pies... Here's a pie chart!

The Government Deception

The pie chart below is the government view of the budget. This is a distortion of how our income tax dollars are spent because it includes Trust Funds (e.g., Social Security), and the expenses of past military spending are not distinguished from nonmilitary spending. For a more accurate representation of how your Federal income tax dollar is really spent, see the large chart (top).


For reference, see link: http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm

[WhoIsNumberNone]

11. Bravo Gates

Is that a pig flying past my window?

I think we all know how rampant pork is in federal spending. And with defense being the largest discretionary item on the budget it has proportionally at least as much as all the other departments. We also know the whole scam about end-of-year money- i.e. they must find ways to waste anything that's left when the fiscal year is nearing the end, or they don't get as much next year.

But to actually hear the Secretary of Defense say it...
Either the sky is falling, or there's hope for us after all.

[Grassy Knoll]

12. La la la la, lalalala" POP "goes the republicans !

[Mari333]

13. sorry, but read the FINE PRINT....HE WANTS TO CUT HARDLY ANYTHING

AND ITS ABOUT CUTTING HEALTH CARE TO THE TROOPS
'Defense secretary targets expenditures on armed forces healthcare and departmental overhead as part of an effort to tame runaway Pentagon spending.'


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4373338

HE IS STILL A MORON

[florida08]

14. wow

$10 billion to $15 billion from a $547-billion Pentagon base budget and this from health care for vets and middle-class jobs..yeah that's where the waste is. What a crock. Get rid of Xe.