MAHER: If You're Unwilling to Cut Military & Give Up the Empire You Don't Really Care About the Debt

[kpete]

Maher to Teabaggers: If You're Unwilling to Cut Military & Give Up the Empire You Don't Really Care About the Debt

Maher: What defense spending really is. Is a giant welfare program. A jobs program for defense workers to build crap we don't need. So... scream about handouts. This is what they should be protesting.

We spend more on weapons than the next top 15 military powers combined. Let's cut it in half so we only spend as much as the next 8 countries behind us and see if anyone invades us.

Teabaggers, If you'll look into that, I will believe you really are 'we the people,' 'what about our grandchildren' patriots. But if you're unwilling to cut defense and give up the empire, you don't really care about the debt. And you have to admit: you're just a racist sore loser.

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if88PgI-vfU&feature=player_embedded
http://www.gabbr.com/blogs/2010/4/39634/Bill-Maher-To-Tea-Baggers:-Take-On-Defense-Spending-And-I%27ll-Believe-You-%28VIDEO%29/

[Zenlitened]

1. K & enthusiastically R!

Any discussion of reducing the debt/cutting spending that does NOT include the defense budget is just plain dishonest.

[axollot]

31. Been saying this about the US since the early 90's. Living in Oz helped me see it. n/t

[BrklynLiberal]

2. He is sooooo right!!!! A point that needs to be made every single day by every so-called Democrat!!

Let's try framing the debate to our advantage for a change!!!

:mad: :puke: :puke: :grr: :nuke: :rant:

[liberalmike27]

21. I like this version

When someone is out to get you, then parinoia is just good thinking.

[calimary]

25. I stood up and cheered when I saw that clip of him, recently, saying these assholes

are nothing but Sore Losermen.

IT'S ABOUT FRICKIN' TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHEN are we going to be calling them what they ARE? Nothing but spoiled-brat, snot-nose, tantrum-throwing adult three-year-olds who are just pissed off that they didn't get their way. They're the REAL Sore Losermen!

[Rex]

3. Why do Tea Baggers hate Glenn Beck!?!

Even batshit crazy boy talks about cutting the defense budget in half! GLENN BECK.

[Catshrink]

4. The war is a "big stupid boat."

The whole thing was both hysterically funny and effective criticism at the same time.

[Muddy Waters Guitars]

5. Smart

Rarely have I heard it argued so articulately.

[whathehell]

6. Damned Right!

[Greyhound]

7. Big K&R.

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

8. Bravo, Bill.

K & R!

[mistertrickster]

9. Bill Maher gets it. Noam Chomsky pointed this out years ago, but

he doesn't have his own TV show.

Military spending is mainly welfare for the rich . . . taxpayer money funneled to big multi-national corps.

[Mojeoux]

10. so well said...."give up the empire."

These weapons jobs, will they cry that they are "too big to fail," because of the jobs?

[chill_wind]

11. Amen and thank you for posting this.. K & R.

eom

[harun]

12. Awesome.

[Robeson]

13. It would take a revolution to get the military out of our pockets...

...and it just isn't going to happen. This country will spend every last dime it has - and then some - to prop up that edifice.

[axollot]

32. And because of that Empires eventually die out in vain. n/t

[Robeson]

49. No doubt.

[dixiegrrrrl]

37. Because....

this pic is titled the Spoil of War and can be found at
http://varnishfineart.com/artist/detail.php?c=523

[Democat]

14. He should ask every right winger who does on the show about it!

Watch them squirm.

[NewJeffCT]

15. That's part of the Republican strategy, though

They know many Democrats won't cut defense spending for fear of being called unpatriotic wusses who hate America... so, the Republicans run up the debt when they're in charge (See Reagan & Bush) and then scream about cutting the debt when they're not in charge knowing full well the only place that will get cut is social spending.

[SHRED]

16. Not too concerned with those 18%'ers

Sure it's funny to call then names and laugh at these morons but...

...it is the Obama Administration's continuation of the bloated Military/Industrial/Complex that has me much more concerned.


---

[pleah]

17. K&R

[AnArmyVeteran]

18. I wish Maher would be more available... The only thing on HBO worth a crap is his show...

[fascisthunter]

19. exactly!

[uponit7771]

20. yep

[L0oniX]

22. Don't sign up! They can't run a military with out people!

If the government wants war then let them get out there and fight it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

28. Albert Einstein said this.

"He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder." Albert Einstein

[axollot]

36. Thanks for sharing this quote. n/t

[L0oniX]

43. Blind obedience to authority is the enemy of the truth. - Albert Einstein

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." - Dwight Eisenhower

Military men are just dumb stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. - Henry Kissinger

That worst outcrop of herd life, the military system, which I abhor . . . This plague-spot of civilization ought to be abolished with all possible speed. Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism–how passionately I hate them! – Albert Einstein

Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them. -Abbie Hoffman

[Andronex]

23. I don't get it...

So teabaggers are supposed to be more progressive than the democratic leadership, I would imagine that since democrats are in power, they should be the ones leading the way and cutting "defence" spending.

[defendandprotect]

24. Exactly --

[patrice]

26. I am going to be watching MUCH more Bill Maher.

I am not sure why I have been kind of ignoring him. I think I will stop that.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

27. The Military is our very own and much treasured sacred cow.

And, it has a big appetite.

[krabigirl]

29. Well, to be fair, Ron Paul and his types do want to giveup the empire & cut military ro

this is why the GOP hates them.

[howaboutme]

33. Let's be honest here

There aren't many in either Party who support giving up the military empire or their kickbacks from defense industry or the ability to hand out arms to Israel, etc. Cutting military is always off the table for some odd reason. Could it be because we are always being connived into waging war for special interests?

Kucinich, Feingold, Ron Paul come to mind immediately as those who would put it on the chopping block. There are others. But if we didn't make arms in the USA what would we make? We have a pathetic service industry economy of selling Chinese products, thanks to decades of a self serving Congress and Presidents (both parties) who sold out the USA to multi-national business, China, Mexico, Japan and elsewhere. We only have a virtual shell of an economy that is run because our reserve status allows us to print fiat money and add debt. These jokers in DC should be put on trial because they sold out the real USA for a paper empire.

[SHRED]

38. spot on

[Robeson]

50. Let's be honest here...

...your post should be a thread of it's own....:thumbsup:

[colsohlibgal]

30. Dead On Bill!

Maher had me fired up listening to him. Military spending has been like the enormous elephant in the room. Bill put it in understandable context. The fact that we could cut it in half, save a staggering amount of money, and still spend more than the next 8 top military spending countries has to register on anyone who isn't brain dead. The fact that so much of our spending is geared to a world that no longer exists is another great point as is the point that the tea baggers are frauds.

Will we ever see a detailed military spending breakout/comparison like this on the NBC Nightly News? Or even MSNBC? Highly doubtful. That's the problem.

The minute Obama proposed any cuts like this (not that I think he's inclined to do) he would be savaged by the right and by some hawk dems. Rush and Hannity would explode.

The idea that we're drowning in debt and broke and cutting this enormous drain on our budget is still off the table is amazing. One of the best things Maher brought up in that show was that Eisenhower would be seen as a wild liberal in a lot of ways today, and that his parting message as he left office about undue influence of the military has fallen on deaf ears.

[TexasObserver]

34. He's right. Our debt is due to our massive military spending.

The average American has no idea we spend far more on "defense" than any nation on the planet.

[TankLV]

42. We spend more for defense THAN ALL OTHER NATIONS COMBINED!!!

not just "any" nation - but ALL of them!!!

And that's many times over, to boot...

[L0oniX]

45. 2010 Russian military budget = 50 billion ...so how does anyone justify what we spend?

[Cetacea]

44. It's dem poor people on food stamps I'm tellin ya.

damn commie.

[howaboutme]

47. Not only do we spend far more

but we spend far more than all the nations on the planet combined.

If we cut it in half we'd still spend far more than others. After we cut it in half we need to quit giving arms and munitions away to Israel and other countries, unless it is at a profit. Actually we'd be far better off if we just quit giving or selling arms to anyone. They usually find their way back to be used against us or the technology sold to others.

[Maineman]

35. Yes! Absolutely agree.

[whereaminow]

39. If reelection rates remain at 90-95%

then, no matter now nice they sound, Bill's words will have meant little to nothing.

[RedCloud]

40. As I see it too!

[TankLV]

41. I've been saying that for a long time - but by doing so - I'm a terraist according to the repukes

and too many DEMOCRATS!!!

[Marr]

46. Here's an interesting chart:

And a big portion of the Pentagon budget is little more than industry handouts under the heading of "R&D".

When you stop to consider that the role of the military is primarily to defend business interests abroad, it's particularly galling. They make serious money off the same government entity that guards their wealth. *We* pay for the whole thing in both blood and money, and they lobby for lower taxes and move production offshore to follow slave labor.

[Mojeoux]

48. This is my favorite "New Rule."

Bill and his writers have really nailed it with this one.