Paying for America's War Machine Is a Terrible Waste of Tax Money
http://www.alternet.org/world/biggest-waste-your-money-taxes-are-paying-americas-war-machineOn April 14, the eve of tax day and ironically (or appropriately) Global Day of Action Against Military Spending, the Pentagon plans to launch a brand new weapon system, one that uses electric pulses to project a 40-pound missile the distance from New York City to Philadelphia at a speed of 5,600 mph. The U.S. Navy spent more than $4 billion to develop and build its stealth destroyer, the USS Zumwalt, a key element in President Obama's announced “pivot to the Pacific.” It's expected that the Zumwalt will be patrolling the coast of China soon at further – as yet undetermined – expense to U.S. taxpayers.
When we're told by our elected officials that we can't afford full funding for education, SNAP (food stamps), Head Start, or unemployment compensation, how is it that we can afford the endless “War on Terror” plus a pivot to East Asia? Expecting a peace divided as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down is wishful thinking: President Obama still proposes to spend a whopping 55% of federal discretionary funds for Fiscal Year 2015 on the military.
In addition, we can expect still more spending on what normal people call “war funding” but Pentagon doublespeak calls “Overseas Contingency Operations” (OCO), a budget which is not subject to caps or cuts under sequestration. In 2014, Congress provided $85 billion for OCO, which has become a slush fund for the Pentagon to use on whatever.
President Obama’s FY15 budget also includes $28 billion for the “Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative.” He explained that this budget line would enable the Pentagon to “accelerate the schedules for developing and buying new or upgraded systems.”
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Otherwise all this military hardware will go unused. Our troops might grow rusty from not engaging in battle. 
The best speeches were those by Ann Zumwalt and Sen. Angus King on Maine. Ann remembered her father, who was hated by the Navy top brass for wanting to reform the Navy and make life more bearable for its sailors. Bud Zumwalt said he had friends and he had enemies, and was proud of both. Nixon hated his guts, which speaks highly of him. Ann is a good friend of ours, and her daughters are friends with ours.
Sen. King said his biggest hope was for the sailors of the USS Zumwalt to never have to use their huge destructive capacity in anger, but for it to be a deterrent. The ship was also designed to run with just half the crew size of current destroyers.
The $4 billion cost of the ship was huge, and the originally planned 30 ships of this design had been reduced to 10 and then down to just three. The small communities in that part of Maine are grateful for the 5000 plus jobs it brought to an otherwise economically depressed part of the country and the tax revenue brought with it. The money wasn't a total waste. Thom Hartmann's ripple theory works here, too. You can only sell so many lobsters, after all.
Angus King is one of the more approachable Senators I have known. Anyone from Maine can probably arrange a chat with him if you call in advance. Really a price of a guy. Unfortunately Elmo Zumwalt died in January of the year my family met his, so I never knew him. However, if his daughters and granddaughters are any indication, he must have been an amazing man, too.
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For the record, I don't think the purpose of this ship has anything at all to do with China, but more as a symbol of support for southeast Asian nations.
and I'm not sure where you're pulling that claim from. 
I'm fully aware that the military budget is federal.
That's the same federal budget that gave us a watered down stimulus for shovel-ready projects, when what was really desperately needed was a massive stimulus to re-build our infrastructure.
And it's the same federal budget that provides for a massive, grotesquely bloated military and that leaves domestic projects starved for funds.
"I'm sure most enterprises in Maine employ some pick-up driving teabaggers." Some = 38%. Hence LePage's nickname, Gov. 38%. And iirc, BIW is the largest employer in Maine.
