Quote:The US spends $711 billion (with a B ) dollars on its military every year. The next closest is China at $143 billion. We spend almost as much on our military as the rest of the world does combined. Our military can afford to come down on spending a little...or a lot. There is not a single country in the world that could pose a serious threat in a one-on-one fight, and we don't need to spend as if the entire world is going to attack us at the same time.

 

Source: http://www.military1.com/all/article/402...gest-power

 

In the 1950's, tax rates on the highest earners peaked at 90%. The economy boomed. In the 1920's, tax rates were extremely low, and we enjoyed the Roaring Twenties right up until the stock market collapsed and the US sunk into the Great Depression. Point being, increasing tax rates on the wealthy has proven over time to balance and stabilize the economy, and dramatically lowering them often contributes to a short peak then a crash.

 

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/history-o...tes-2012-5

 

That's a common misconception among a lot of people, and a very dangerous one.  I'm not going to get into specifics, but our military isn't the "powerhouse" that so many believe that it is.

 

Now are there cuts that can be made in regards to how the military spends money?  Absolutely.  Under current rules, the government in general, not just the military has a "spend it or lose it" rule.  They must spend all of the money given to them under the current budget, or the following year they would get less.  As an example, I often would see aircraft launch, fly down to say Key West and do a couple of "touch and goes" just to burn fuel and use up money.  I've seen furniture replaced in government offices just to "burn up" the money in their budget, even if the furniture doesn't need to be replaced.  This usually happens near the end of the fiscal year.  Again, it's not just the military that does it, but all of the Federal Government.  Let that sink in for a moment.

 

Regarding taxes, I still firmly believe that we should switch to a consumption based tax, rather than an earnings based tax (The Fair Tax).  Let everyone pay their "fair share" rather than targeting those that worked hard enough to have a well paying job.

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