There should be some sort of required service that would involve all citizens in some military-type training that could prepare them for a draft and give them the preliminary training to have before enlisting, but there wouldn't be a requirement for them to actually go overseas or to fight. It would teach people how to defend themselves and would help protect the country because of that. They would be paid of course, even though it should be mandatory, and payment is the reason why there will always be people enlisting.

__________________
The White Fox Uncertainty Principle states that:
You can never know the position of a liberal and the logic behind it at the same time,
because the closer you get to finding one, the more unknown the other one becomes.

I offer you proof that my uncertainty principle stands true:

As far as I know the US spends more on their military than the next 10 countries combined. Seems there is room for substancial reductions.

The only threat to the US at the moment and in the foreseeable future is terrorism. And a bloated military can do nothing at all to stop a suitcase dirty bomb.

http://www.ipb.org/Countries%20w...he%20World.pdf

herEs figures on military spending expenditures by GDP

__________________
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself."
Benjamin Franklin
http://i27.tinypic.com/2hn2lpv.jpg

Sorry, I was wrong. The US doesn't just spend more than the next 10 countries combined, but spends more than the rest of the world combined!

Yeah, but since we're so stinking rich, it's a mere drop in the bucket for us. During world war II we spent upwards of 45% of GDP on the Military, today that figure isn't even a tenth of that.

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http://www.nosocialism.com
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America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton - Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over - Sounds Republican).

he didn't use my source which was by GDP and we were not even on the list!

__________________
A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.The U.S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself."
Benjamin Franklin
http://i27.tinypic.com/2hn2lpv.jpg

Uh...let me remind you that the economy of the US is less than even the Euro-countries, i.e. the 15 European countries which have decided to have a common currency. It is far less than the EU's economy as a whole, of course.

The US could form a union with Japan and then that union would be the largest, but what's your point.

__________________
The White Fox Uncertainty Principle states that:
You can never know the position of a liberal and the logic behind it at the same time,
because the closer you get to finding one, the more unknown the other one becomes.

I offer you proof that my uncertainty principle stands true:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH AHAHAHAHAH

oH, GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD, OH GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

THAT WAS FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now for the real deal,

Click on the link above to get all the hyper links, I don't feel like doing all that over again.....

As for the Deficit, it's less than 20% of our spending, the biggest problem is that since the 1970's we've increased spending a bit over 13 Fold. While Net inflows of cash to the government has grown slightly less than 13 fold. I go into detail on there on my website.

As for the Poor in this country, Well there's an article here by the Heritage foundation
Here's some quotes from that Article:
* Forty-three percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage and a porch or patio.
* Eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, in 1970, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
* Six percent of poor households are considered overcrowded; two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
* The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens and other European cities. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
* Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 31 percent own two or more cars.
* Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
* Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
* Eighty-nine percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a more than a third have an automatic dishwasher.

Here's another one by the American Enterprise Online.

And then of course there's the in depth analysis done by the Swedish Think Tank Timbro, it's long at 49 pages, but one of he most eye opening things that I've read in a long time.

You can continue to live as you have with your head buried in the sand, or you can choose to open your eyes and take a peek at the links, but don't blame me if you can't sleep at night because your entire world view has just been shattered.

Basically, if every country in Europe, except your Money Center, Sweden were a U.S. State, you would be considered poorer than our 4 poorest states.

__________________
http://www.nosocialism.com
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America is not a Socialist country, this is why the only democrats who ever win, are democrats who SOUND like Republicans (Hello Bill Clinton - Low taxes, Free Trade, Welfare Reform, Era of Big Government Over - Sounds Republican).

My point is that not only does the US spend more in absolute terms on their military than the rest of the world combined, but that since the US economy is smaller than even just the 15 euro-countries, they spend much more per GDP. Even of the rest of the "Western world".

As I said before, the US could cut down on their deficit spending by even just cutting their military budget by a billion a day.