Category: Federal Budget & Government Waste

With $100 billion being spent every year in Afghanistan, why are we there? In fact, why are we fighting anywhere? What has been accomplished in Afghanistan in the last 10 years? $1.2 trillion would have been better spent on defending our borders and the military. The money would have stayed in the US, boosted employment and helped to boost the economy. Of course, a lot of people would still be alive, suffering would be eliminated and trillions would not be needed for medical treatment and rehabilitation.

How can $100 billion per year cost the US trillions of dollars per year? The side benefits of a strong border defense are limitless and would save trillions more. A few of the very many benefits, other than preventing the importation of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, include substantial reduction of transportation of illegal drugs; transportation of counterfeit goods across our borders; and transportation of unwanted animal life. Illegal drugs alone probably cost the US economy trillions of dollars. Counterfeit goods costs US jobs and loss of tax revenue. Unwanted foreign animal life is already threatening millions of dollars of damage to the US food supply.

Saving trillions more which was and is spent on other wars and continue to be spent in other countries (even South America), our defense will be stronger than ever, taxes will be reduced and the national debt will be eliminated.

Who really wants to balance the budget, cut taxes or raise taxes, and/or cut or increase expenditures, the GOP, the Tea Party or the Democrats?

The GOP says they want to balance the budget, cut taxes and expenditures but it was the GOP which took a balanced budget created by President Clinton and ran it out of control with decreased taxes for the wealthy and the cost of the Afghanistan war and Iraq war. Decreased regulation allowed multiple economic catastrophes to occur.

President Obama allowed the federal deficit to balloon out of control in an effort to save the economy of this country and the rest of the world by saving some of the wealthiest US corporations. At the time it was being considered, several of my Republican friends said this had to be done. I was against it and thought that it would be better to allow some of these companies to go out of business.

Should taxes be raised to pay for two wars and conflicts in a dozen other countries which are never reported in the news? What about raising taxes for entitlements?

The GOP would like to cut taxes for the wealthy and cut entitlements which benefits people who are not wealthy. The GOP would even like to cut Social Security which they continuously refer to as an entitlement in a manner intended to be portrayed as a freebie.

Social Security and Medicare are not freebies, they are legitimate entitlements because they are just like a private annuity that we pay for. In fact, I pay a very substantial amount of Social Security taxes every year. Medicaid is the only entitlement that is a freebie but I don’t want to live in a country that does not provide medical care for people who cannot afford it.

So how can the federal budget deficit be eliminated and the budget balanced? A really good start would be to immediately discontinue all foreign military wars and conflicts. This would save trillions of dollars and allow more money to be spent on military defense. The Bush tax cut for the wealthy should be eliminated, at least temporarily, but not for people earning $250,000 per year and more but for people earning $750,000 per year and more.

Unfortunately, the GOP is allowing the Tea Party to dictate demands And thus preventing any compromise to raise the debt ceiling. If they are successful, they will change their opinions quickly when the Social Security checks for their parents stop coming and Medicare stops paying for their parent’s medical bills. Rather un-American, the Tea Party is not unlike myself. We both want to be dictators, we just have different ideas as to what to do.

The Republicans love to see America going to war and cut taxes, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The Democrats are okay with America going to war and want to spend money on social services. But now, even the Democrats are talking about restructuring Social Security.

Taxes started with the American civil war and the tax code took off with World War II.  While these wars were worth fighting, the wars President Bush started in Afghanistan and Iraq were not worthwhile.  Afghanistan was a disaster for the Russians and should have been a lesson for us.  It would’ve been cheaper and easier to send them a few bombs.  Iraq was a stable country that could not threaten us.  Even President George H. W. Bush knew to stay out of Iraq.

Instead of starting a war in Afghanistan, President Bush should have spent the money on defense and development of weapons such as drones. After spending $1 trillion in Iraq, nothing has been done to protect American ports and borders.

Most people don’t realize it, but we have been spending money to fight a drug war in South America for many years. This money would be far better spent on protecting our borders. More recently, Mexico is becoming a major threat and violence has been crossing the border into America. Because the federal government doesn’t want to spend money protecting the border, homeowners have had to form civilian patrols. Unfortunately, they are ill-equipped and the violence is now extending far beyond the border into America.

Now, President Obama is spending more money on the civil war in Libya. President Obama may not want to call it a war but we are spending money to kill people and there is no other word for it. There is no doubt that this will spread to many other Arab countries and probably even Iran. What about Pakistan?

Not only has the Afghanistan and Iraq cost trillions of dollars but many Americans have been killed and even more Americans have been horribly disabled which also costs an enormous amount of money for medical treatment.

The only thing I never hear politicians talk about cutting is war. If the idiot politicians could stop starting one war after another, we could have spent a few trillion dollars on military readiness, defense, Social Security and have Medicare for everyone regardless of age. We should think defense instead of offense.

We already spent $1 trillion fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Now, many politicians want to start another war in Libya.  It doesn’t matter what they call it, we invaded a foreign country and attacked their military.   That’s a war.  Even if they had attacked us first and there are was a need for retaliation, that would still be a war although justified.

Originally, the stated goal was to stop Qadhafi from killing civilians, but the goal is really regime change.  President Obama hasn’t learned anything from President George W. Bush who should have listened to his father.  During the Persian Gulf war, President George H.  Bush was smart enough to chase Iraq out of Kuwait and stop at the border.

The White House likes to talk about how this is a coalition with other countries and how the first strike was a collaboration with Britain.  Rarely mentioned is the fact that the US launched 97% of the cruise missiles with only 3% launched by Britain.  This is nothing more than a mere token of support.  Britain was smart enough to let us spend the money.  The White House stupidly thought that the Arab league was supporting us and now, after the military strike on Qadhafi, the Arab League is against us.  That is hardly a surprise and maybe the White House expected that.

We can’t keep paying for wars and this one will lead throughout the Arab world.  Why didn’t the White House asked Congress for approval to start military action against Libya?  Can we afford more wars?  Of course, we can easily afford another war by eliminating Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.  In fact, we might even be able to afford a couple of more wars.  What a great idea!

Why do we continue to send US citizens to be killed and maimed and continue to spend money fighting for oil instead of spending money exploring for new oil sources and alternative energy sources?  There is something very wrong with American politicians who want immediate results to our energy needs instead of long-term planning for the future.

There are only two reasons that could have precipitated this military action.  One is for oil and the other is a strategy to attack Iran.  By attacking Libya to assist the Libyan rebels, this could encourage uprisings in other Arab nations leading to a fall of dictators like dominoes.  The White House may be helping that this will lead to uprisings in Iran where we can once again begin military action with the “support” of other countries and accomplish the one regime change the White House is hoping for.

There is a long history of using the enemies of our enemies to combat our enemies.  History has shown that the only outcome was that they all became our enemies only better armed and we paid for it.  It is far better to leave our enemies alone.

If we are going to spend money and lives to really help and save innocent people, there are far better times and places to do so.  Why are we getting involved with Libya when nothing was ever done to prevent the atrocities in Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and other African countries.  These atrocities have been far worse than anything in Libya.

How to cut taxes and stop wasting money.  We could probably cut federal income taxes by 80% just by ending waste in probably more than 100,000 areas.  Following are some of the areas where money can be saved  (I will keep adding as I find new items).

Afghanistan:  Save $65 billion + $7 billion + increases per year (the cost is increasing every year). The cost of the war in Afghanistan is now costing us more than Iraq.  According to Defence Talk, the White House is requesting $65 billion for Afghanistan and $61 billion for Iraq in 2010.  According to the 60 minutes interview, the Afghanistan war will cost us $7 billion. In the interview, Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith said the Afghan Police force consists of officers who are illiterate, drug addicts and corrupt and it will be impossible for the police force to be successful for another 100 years.  Lt. General William Caldwell blamed the problem of corruption on the low salaries for Afghan police.  We can’t afford to be in Afghanistan forever.  We should just pull out now and save the money.  Unfortunately, we can’t force democracy down the throats of every country. Democracy requires an educated population.

Iraq: Save $61 billion + increases per year? We never should have gotten into this war and if President Bush had only consulted with his father, we probably never would have. Unfortunately, now that we have eliminated a stable strategic government, we need to make sure that we build a new stable government. Consequently, we’re going to have to keep spending money in Iraq but I’m sure there are many ways to save.

Medicare & Medicaid: Save $60+ billion per year.The biggest problem with Medicare and Medicaid is fraud. According to the Coalition against Insurance Fraud, as of 2008, Medicare and Medicaid loses “an estimated $60 billion or more annually to fraud…”. The site also claims that “Medicare spends less than two tenths of a cent of every dollar of its $456 billion annual budget combating fraud, waste and abuse.” Apparently, because there is so much fraud they don’t have any money left to combat it! There is a solution. They can create a volunteer law enforcement agency, similar to Auxiliary Police and Reserve Police to do the work. There are many CPAs, attorneys, retired law enforcement officers, and others who would volunteer their time. I’m one of them. I am a practicing attorney in the Commanding Officer of Communications for the Nassau County Auxiliary Police.