Romney's "4% for Freedom" is 100% impossible

[trailmonkee]

Source: examiner.com

In his speech at the Republican National Convention, Mitt Romney said that he would build a U.S. military “so powerful no other nation would dare challenge us.”

He favors a plan that has since come to be known a “4% for Freedom” among Conservative advocates. The idea is to bring military spending to a level that would spend $4 for every $100 of GDP, or Gross National Product.

How much money would this raise for military spending? It would mean an increase of $2.1 trillion over the next 10 years – and that $2.1 trillion would be over and above what we spend now. Source

As it stands, the United States is already spending more on military than all other nations in the world –combined.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/article/romney-s-4-for-freedom-is-100-impossible

[thesquanderer]

1. Vote for the Military Industrial Complex! (n/t)

[reflection]

2. Madness.

Our military is not hurting for money. This man is a sociopath to even consider this in the face of so much poverty and misery at home.

[nanabugg]

3. Could we please show Ike's speech on the military-industrial-complex at the DNC?

Just play it on a rolling screen just before all ads.

[Skidmore]

4. We have the most powerful military on earth and all it took was a few box cutters to threaten it.

And he wants to make over $2T in debt to fund it without raising taxes?

[jmowreader]

14. No, no, no...

He wants to CUT taxes while he's busy spending all that money on the military.

So let me see here: Romney wants to:

cut taxes
double military spending
and balance the budget

He also wants to get rid of abortion.

He's not running as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. He's running as the second coming of Nicolae Ceaucescu, who did all those things and managed to put Romania into a depression it's still trying to work its way out of in the process.

[Panasonic]

5. You're just still nailing your own coffin, Rmoney

Go on.. I want to see a 50 blue states with all Republicans Senators, Congressmen, local senators/congressman, Governors OUT and attached to Albatross Rmoney.

[earthside]

6. Corporate and social welfare.

Military spending is a massive transfer of wealth from poor, working and middle class Americans to the one percent ... under the guise of 'patriotism' and being 'strong on national defense'.

All we (regular folks) get out of the military now is a make-work jobs program and essentially welfare entitlements for enlisted families and veterans (I'm being rhetorical here).

But by far most of military/'defense' spending is to funnel money to 'defense' contracting corporations.

We could actually cut the trillion dollars we spend now by four/fifths and adequately defend the nation.

So, in my opinion, military spending is way too high under Pres. Obama ... under Rmoney it would bankrupt the country.

[Panasonic]

7. I am all for cutting the defense spending down to 1% higher than the nearest country's defense spend

let's see.

As of 2012, the nearest country spending is 143 billion, and that's China.

Cut it down to 144 billion per year for defense spending from 711 billion per year for U.S.

Time to cut down the pork and the unnecessary defense spending.

All troops needs to be recalled effective immediately.

Sell the rest to the local host countries for a bargain.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. We had the most powerful military...

in the world in Sept. 2001. No country in the world would stand toe to toe with us. When faced with such strength, some do the only thing they can do- engage in terrorism. Let us destroy ourselves out of fear. OBL won that one, we have been destroying ourselves since. As long as we keep swinging our dicks all over the world, more of these acts will occur, and this big hulking military cannot stop a few determined individuals.

[neverforget]

9. Spending that much is just a way to justify killing safety net of SS, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.

Plus it will protect the 1% as the most expensive mercenary force ever. The rest of us are just fodder for the machine.

[SmittynMo]

10. Save the money and keep the troops at home.

We have spent more than 30 times more any other country on the military. Fact: We are NEVER going to fix the worlds problems. NEVER! Why the hell are we still in Germany, Japan, etc? I say let then run their own damn country any way they want. It's their land, and their civilization. If they screw up, let them. Does anyone think we're going to change any of that? Hell no.

I propose the following: Reduce military spending by 50-75%, and build a defense for OUR country. Just think, if we would have done that decades ago, I suspect 9/11 would have never happened. Keep our troops here, in training, in the event we are attacked. There is absolutely no reason to go elsewhere and fix their f'ups. We will NEVER change them. A strong defense at home makes for a stronger offense. AND think of all the lives we would have saved. AND the deficit wouldn't be near the issue it is today. And think too, no one would have to choose sides, over who our enemies and friends are. Look out for Number 1

It's kind of like a savings account. Save, save, save, and use it in an emergency.

The sad part is the war mongers(GOP) will NEVER allow this to happen. It's kill, kill, kill.

Of course, I could be wrong!!!! LMAO

[louis-t]

11. Is that the percentage of brain matter that repugs use?

Just askin'.

[wilt the stilt]

12. so say's the ultimate chickenhawk family

no one has ever served in the Romney family in any generation furthermore Mormons serve less than anyone in the country. what a bunch of chumps.

[Big Orange Jeff]

13. “so powerful no other nation would dare challenge us"...

Sounds perilously similarly to "Bring it on"

[jmowreader]

15. We are NOT currently spending more than all other nations combined

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the whole world spends $1.735 trillion on their militaries. Of that, the US spends $711 billion, which is nearly five times the spending of the second-place nation, China. The whole world outside our borders spends $1.024 trillion on defense.

It's hard to accurately determine how much money we actually spend on defense because Members of Congress love to bury pet projects that have little to nothing to do with defense in the defense authorization act. I am not sure if other countries' lawmakers do the same thing, but (especially in places like China) it's not really likely.

I can understand wanting to increase military spending by $313 billion, which would have US spending equal that of the rest of the world combined; Bush's Guernica left our equipment in such a state of disrepair we should have just buried the shit in the desert before coming home. We need new helicopters, new tanks and a replacement for the HMMWV that gets more than 6 MPG. (You read that right: the Humvees the Army relies on get worse gas mileage than a tractor-trailer.) Unfortunately, that's going to take a shitload of money and money is the government commodity that is in the shortest supply.

Now, here's what we should do to solve the problem of Romney campaigning on the perceived need to quadruple military spending: pass a law before Congress recesses to ask the voters for their jobs back that every dollar of increased military spending has to be offset by a dollar of income tax increase. And no, it can't be a "loophole closing," a new fee on something-or-other, termination of a social program, or a reduced tax credit--it has to be an increase in tax rates. If he wants to quadruple defense spending, he can work up the political will to pay for it. The odds of his being elected probably dropped from the 44th floor through the floor of the basement on the strength of his running mate's imagined three-hour marathon, but we still need to make preparations.

[David__77]

16. Too late for all that.

Not going to achieve that strategic objective, and not going to goad others into following the same folly.

If those funds were dedicated to energy and related R&D, then it would be great. There are positive spillovers from military spending, but it's a terrible misdirection as compared with so many other priorities.

[RoccoR5955]

17. Forget that fecal matter, it's time to cut the military budget IN HALF

They don't need all those funds, and the country does. Time for the Military Industrial Complex to suffer along with the rest of us!
Turn those jobs making weapons into jobs making windmills, solar panels, and a new infrastructure. It would be a better defense than some of the garbage they spend it on.

[goclark]

18. He wants to be Hitler II = MITler

Each day he makes more and more horrible decisions and makes dangerous statements without caring what the negatives are ~