The GOP is the grievance party with no agenda beyond power

Anybody from the right, to bring this back to the middle. '28 we'll have a better options.

I like Trump because I think it was better from 16-20, than the last 4 years. You're free to think otherwise

 

The GOP if full of whiny assed babies, all they do is whine whine whine.



DD

 

You probably shouldn't be running a business. 13% might be great. It might be terrible. 13% just tells you it is one of the places you should examine first for cost savings.

 

Why are you treating a government like a business in the first place?

The average American conservative mind is reactionary which leads to situations where the lack of investment in the working class like healthcare leads to long term outcomes that later become more expensive to society.


A corporation doesn't have the incentive to care about the results of their outcome 20 years down the line. The Americans voter does in theory but propaganda usually dries their brain in a manner to think like a corporation where they base success of a president on quarterly stock numbers.

 

It's not the entire budget...vet affairs, DOE (anything atomic related), and some other stuff (like funding actual wars) aren't in the official defense count, which would've been a net trillion at the end of Bush's presidency.

It's called an industrial military complex for a reason. Contracts awarded are sometimes like subscriptions people forget about decades ago.

I'm not against military spending keeping pace of foreign threats, but I doubt anyone would call the spending efficient.

 

That’s funny that why my exact response too

https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/...-wrong-direction.319978/page-11#post-14673369

 

We currently have a record stock market, record profits for corporations and the 1%.

You are delulu if you think Trump is going try to change any of those things to help the other 99% of us?

And you'll gladly vote for an insurrectionist traitor felon pedophile and hand over the key to our country to his Christian Nationalist Jihadists to save a couple bucks at the gas pump or grocery store. He doesn't care about you. He just wants your vote. He'll have it all fixed in 4 years so you never have to vote again. That's back to center?

SMH

 

Obviously, you've never run a business because I have and it's extremely successful
what we're talking about If I have hypothetically $1000 to spend on my business in a year and I'm spending $130 on something that is extremely vital and one of the most important things to spend on as far as keeping my business running Then that is absolutely a key component and again I would not consider that a big expenditure When you consider the totality

I would love to not purchase any trimmer line, but the fact is it's a vital component of my business just like a military is a vital component for a government and a country that wants to exist.

When I say small government is what I'm for what I'm really saying is I want a smaller government- You have to spend based on priorities and The military is simply a nonnegotiable priority for the existence of a nation-

It's similar to this situation:
Kind of like cutting a yard- I can cut a yard in 30 minutes and charge $45 - This is $90 per hour- Bigger government might say to use battery equipment, which cost three times my equipment cost- Then I should use 4 workers to reduce the workload- And one person to train at the office- Suddenly things got more complicated and potentially more problems as a result of spending more ? Trust me, I know how to run my business. I've been doing it for almost 10 years and it's doing very well and I base it on this same mindset.- Smaller government works !

 

Power of the dollar was way better, and no wars, Trump is for peace. Big Poppa makes sure the kids ain't fighting.

 

I'm a CPA who owns his firm. Literally my area of expertise.

Your example is about as stupid as I can imagine. Something vital doesn't have to be expensive or a high %. If you are spending 13% on your trimmer line, then boy can I save you money because that diamond line they are selling you isn't made of diamond.

 

Spending 11 to 13 percent of an expected budget is NOT "big" or unnecessarily high when it's something that is BOTH vital and necessary AND you want the best in class capabilities for the spending category

Everyone has an annual spending budget, including governments- So the question is at what percentage is considered average as a baseline? Well, we know the answer is close to 7%--

is 7% high based on your esteemed CPA credentials? The answer is that is the undeniable average of every nation with military capability on what it spends per annual budget.

Given that the USA is NOT average and is fact expected to be at the top of military capabilities, it's understandable that the USA percentage is slightly higher than average - so where we are at is in the range typically between 11-13.5 percent over the last 10 years ; certainly higher than what a "so so" average country does at 7 percent of its spending budget ..

I'll give you another example as it relates ,... Again, everyone has a spending budget in their business including YOU -

Let's say a average landscape company spends 7% of its annual budget on trimming line that is bulk and basic - which is actually pretty close likely to this real world example -
However, I want to have the best trimming line because I realize #1 I don't want to just be average and my customers certainly don't pay for average service or results ...#2 I realize that going a bit higher and allocating black diamond trimmer line compared to cheaper round line would be a bump up of 4 to 6 percent higher than average trimmer line because it simply performs better and gets the job done quicker and with better appearance standards...

Would you characterize 11 to 13% of annual budget spending as big when everyone else on average is spending 7% of annual budget? The answer is NOT if you want to be average ...out of around 195 countries in the world - no thanks
To conclude:
Basically, the USA chooses NOT to be average on military capability- Instead of spending 7% of its annual spending budget like the average of 195 countries does - it spends closer to 11 to 13 percent
Keep in mind this is only 4 to 6% higher than what the average country spends on the military (as a percentage of its own annual budget)
Would I characterize the 4 to 6 percent bump up as "big"? Not from a percentage perspective and Not where the USA expects its military to compare among others

 

PS in case anyone is wondering yes echo black diamond is definitely worth the price bump up if you need trimmer line
Get the .095 - anything thicker is inefficient and not worth the return on performance vs cost

 

Anything that grows with scale makes it harder to get the same rate of return as when you were a small business. Whatever strategy that made a day trader successful doesn't fully fit or work out as a hedge fund and definitely doesn't work when you get to Warren Buffett scale.

It's why small government idealists will always be around because of bureaucratic waste and excess. Our military has had major whoppers of waste and excess but it's probably one of the most well oiled machine ever compared to others.

Holding it to task in a democracy is part of that process towards better efficiency (less Congressional idiocy would help) but it's too easy in this day and age to slobber the flag and not pay attention to the men behind the curtain.

 

I don't know man. I mean Trump telling Bibi not to do a deal until after the election seems pretty Islamist.

 

People don't seem to understand Trump did not think he would win in 2016. His transition team.was a cluster ****. It took months for him to even get people hired. By the end of his term he was trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Now he is prepared. They have been working on this for years. He has been pushing the Unitarian Executive. He and his staffers came up with Project 2025/Agenda 47. All these people "He didn't do it the first time!' Correct, but not for a lack of trying at the end. This time he is prepared from the beginning.

 

Walz said, when a coach writes down a playbook they intend to use it.

Trump is doing Project 2025 - he must be stopped.

DD

 

Every military in the world has associated costs. The point of contention is whether concerns to enable a smaller government should affect military spending as a percentage. Certainly there are ways to be more efficient. As I pointed out - the US Government places emphasis on a greater than average military power. When an average military power country typically spends 7 percent of its annual budget on the military, the United States goes over that by a very reasonable 4 to 6 percent amount.

This 4 to 6 percent spending as a percentage increase over the average country combined with the significant larger budget affords the USA to maintain its military capability.
Could the USA cut the military spending budget to be more in line with the average country of 7%? Sure and because of the actual dollars and increase budget, it would still be a significant military but it wouldn’t be the military that we have now that assures a competitive edge….

There is 12 major areas that comprise the spending budget ( this is not all the categories but the 12 significant ones )

• Agriculture
• Commerce
• Defense
• Education
• Energy
• Health and Human Services
• Homeland Security
• Housing and Urban Development
• Interior
• Labor
• Social Security
• Transportation

In a woke utopian world where everyone cares about feelings and not facts…Military Defense wouldn’t need any percentage of spending but in a crazy world, realists know better so as an advocate for smaller government how do we properly address these 12 major federal departments? All these departments are vital so the idea of a smaller government is NOT eliminating services but by changing the approach and being more efficient in all departments

4 areas to help make government smaller:

1. Transfers. Transfers can create a mirage that the government is generating a cost-free flow of income to the public. However, every dollar of spending comes from taxes on someone, either now or in the future

2. Aid to the States. Federal aid is an inefficient way to fund state and local activities. It encourages overspending by the states, comes with complex federal regulations that stifle innovation, and generates bureaucracies at all levels of government.

3. Purchases. Federal procurement has long been subject to waste and scandal. Contracts for defense, energy, and technology projects often go over budget, we can potentially get military spending ona more effective methodology and perhaps even lower spending (as a advocate for the necessity of the military you still need to examine ways to cut spending) -Defense dominates federal procurement and can be subject to warranted oversight to save costs

A general downsizing of the government would cut purchasing costs

4. Compensation. average wages and benefits for federal civilian workers are typically as much as 74 percent or more than the average for U.S. private-sector workers. Federal benefits are particularly out of line with the private sector. That’s great everyone should get their bag but why not adjust compensation to be more in line with the private sector especially when taxpayers foot the bill and a federal budget has limits
——————————————————————————————————
Hypothetically if the 12 major departments of federal spending were treated on an equal basis then they all would receive 8.3 % of the federal budget equaling 100 percent and we call it a day. But we know that isn’t how it should work.
Social Security, Unemployment & Labor takes up nearly 40 %
Medicare & Health takes up nearly 30 %

so all the other federal departments including Defense takes what is left of the remaining approximate 30 % - considering the US government chooses to only go over the worldwide military annual budget average by a mere 4 to 6 percent is telling when this is typically true regardless of political party - those average countries that designate 7 percent (instead of 11- 13 percent) of its budget towards Defense have just as much associated costs or perhaps more

 

We spend more on the military than the next 20 countries combined, 19 of which are our allies.

DD