GOP outlines 2.5 Trillion in spending cuts (none to defense)

No one addicted to our "market economy" will do it. Military spending is probably the truest socialism, the truest welfare in the US.

Powerful people don't give up their power. You have to take it from them.

 

I hope you're not asking me to defend this position.

 

without military spending where will we get such cool toys as this??


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2376093,00.asp
U.S. Navy Laser Will Zap Enemy Weapons Out of the Sky


By: Leslie Horn

It's not exactly Ronald Reagan's Star Wars program, but it's close. Nine months ahead of schedule, the U.S. Navy has produced a megawatt laser with the potential to do things like zap enemy planes out of the sky and disable missile threats.

To power the Free Electron Laser (FEL), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) created an electron injector necessary to fuel the megawatt beam. To support the intense amount of light to focus such a laser beam, it requires a lot of power. Some lasers run on crystals, others are fueled by chemicals. The FEL passes supercharged electrons through magnetic fields, and the new injector supplies the laser with a huge source of electrons at a very high speed.

"The FEL is expected to provide future U.S. Naval forces with a near-instantaneous laser ship defense in any maritime environment throughout the world," ONR's FEL program manager Quentin Saulter said in a press relase.

The FEL is "the future of Navy ship protection," the ONR said. It can take down multiple enemy weapons at a time. It's not a totally new technology, though. The FEL has actually existed since 1976, but until now it hasn't been able to reach megawatt power. Additionally, moisture and aerosols in the ocean air can make it difficult for the FEL to be effective on Navy ships.

Popular Science said the Navy has spent a cool $163 million to create a laser that both works at sea and produces enough electrons to generate 14 kilowatts of power.

"The injector performed as we predicted all along," said Dr. Dinh Nguyen, senior project leader for the FEL at Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. "But until now, we didn't have the evidence to support our models. We were so happy to see our design, fabrication, and testing efforts finally come to fruition. We're currently working to measure the properties of the continuous electron beams, and hope to set a world record for the current of electrons."

Popular Science said that the Navy is working to have a prototype ready for testing by 2018.

 

no, and I'm hoping no one does, it's seriously frustrating to me that people think war can be a solution to all these situations.

 

True.

 

...and the "trillion dollar tragedy" (Obamacare) was one of the main reasons why the GOP received SO MANY votes last November.

 

I'm kind of amazed that nobody has recognized the underlying theme of this proposal. It's not really to cut spending or reduce the deficit. The GOP has said repeatedly they don't care about that. (See Dick "deficits don't matter" Cheney, more tax breaks for rich because they don't count, etc.)

It's primary purpose is to cut things Dems like. I've come to increasingly think this is a primary motivation for all wingnut positions. This is one big temper tantrum complete with a stuck out tongue.

Of course, it also puts thousands of people out of work, which is looking more and more like a feature of Tea Party "policy" rather than a bug.

 

Again, I'm eagerly awaiting response from bigtexxx's other friends on this. I'm sure they haven't uttered a peep because their responses would be no better than the crap texxx has spewed in here so far.....brah bwahahahaahahah BRAAAH BWHAAAAAAAAAAA

 

I don't think I believe the Republicans don't care about reducing the deficit. This isn't Dick Cheney in office right now. Though I do think the Republicans are mostly counting on reductions in taxes and regulations to spur the economy and generate more tax revenues as a result, and looking to cut costs for their own sake -- because government shouldn't do x or y -- and not for a balanced budget. They're kind of like the current Rockets trying to outscore opponents and refusing to play any real defense despite a shooting slump.

The bill seems to me like a collection of things Republicans have thought over the last few decades to be things that the government should not be funding. For example, didn't we have a big argument about the National Endowment for the Arts back in the '90s? So, they've taken all their pet peeves and stuck it in this bill. And the rest they don't want to specify.

But, isn't this all kind of like the Repeal the Job-Killing Healthcare Law bill -- sound and fury? This is the House Republicans' plan. It's not very close to what we will end up with at the end of the process. I wonder if perhaps we're dignifying this proposal with too much attention in the first place.

 

Sometimes, I wish enough Dems would go along with these Tea Party ideas and make them a reality. Then we'll see how viable they are.

 

They did go along with Republican magical thinking in Iraq in 2003, the scale of fail, and resulting consequences were enormous - it hasn't fazed them one bit from proposing more and more fail.

 

Because what the Dems presented was a pile of poo. And the will of the American people reflected this sentiment in the results of the recent elections.

 

Except that Jews are 2% of the population. I'm not saying the Democrats aren't responsible for military aid to Israel, but your choice to implicate the Jews is a curious one.

 

The healthcare law was based on republican ideas and modeled after the current laws passed in MA by a republican governor. But let’s not derail the thread.

 

If they cared, they would take a serious, rational look at the problem and not spout off ridiculous, vastly disproven economic theories that have no valid application in the real world. That they insist on sticking to the fairy tale of supply side economics tells you everything you need to know about how seriously they think about the deficit and the debt.

They're like the doctors in the late 1800's who keep on insisting patients need to be bled... simply because that was once the prevailing theory and that's all they know how to do, regardless of any new information.

 

you mean it was based off of Mitt Romney's plans. Who yes is a republican. But that doesnt mean it was a good idea just because he is a republican. That is the one thing that is going to hurt Mitt in the republican primary in 2012.

 

No what he means is that it was identical in structure to the ones the GOP leadership proposed back in the 90's under Bob Dole, which is why Dole worked to get this one passed.

 

What is the point of this chart? We are not even close to fighting China. Unless global politics changes drastically in the next 50 years (like WWIII).

Plus if you believe what the PRC tells you about it's military budget you are a fool.

 

i think it further highlights the absurdity of our military spending. even at the height of the cold war we had like a 17:1 advantage over the soviets - the united states spends more on its "defense" than the rest of the world combined and that is playing a major part in bankrupting us. roughly half the governments spending is on defense/military and republicans want to avoid making any cuts there?

ron paul and barney frank proposed cutting $10 trillion from just the pentagon over the same time period (10 years). too bad they didnt get more support for that, b/c thats what its going to take.

 

Hmm I never thought about it that way before. Did some google searching on the topic it's a interesting point you bring up.

How do you propose we do that?