Romney wants to increase the defense budget by more than 50 percent over current levels

[bigtree]

Washington, June 24 (ANI): President Barack Obama has proposed to keep the Pentagon's budget essentially flat for the next ten years, but Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to increase defense spending massively, according to an analysis.

According to the analysis by Doyle McManus, an American journalist, Romney wants to increase the defense budget by more than 50 percent over current levels, according to one estimate, which could mean almost two trillion dollars in additional military spending over ten years.

According to Los Angeles Times, Romney said the country needs about 100,000 more active-duty military personnel than the current 1.4 million, even though U.S. forces have left Iraq and have begun to withdraw from Afghanistan.

According to the analysis, the biggest problem with Romney's defense budget is that it does not add up with the rest of his platform, which calls for decreasing federal spending overall, while also lowering taxes, and, at the same time, balancing the budget.


read: http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/06/24/189-Analyst-questions-Romney-s-excessive-defence-budget-plans-.html

[liberal N proud]

1. I wonder, how many defense companies have ties to Bain Capital?

Just wondering.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. These despicable, dysfunctional, dumb asses

don't seem to connect that "military spending" = "FEDERAL spending", but then they operate in a world littered with their own massive contradictions and manage to be blinded by them as well.

[Turbineguy]

3. The End will come quicker then.

[Raster]

4. Of course Rmoney wants to increase the defense budget, his is the American Military Complex's...

...own anointed candidate. They have laid their hands upon him and called him to serve. Soon to join that unholy quorum to anoint are the banking industry's Lords of Money and the American-Saudi Petroleum Mafia.

[JaneQPublic]

13. Bingo! The Military Industrial Complex is a main part of his base...

...right along with the corporate/Wall Street crowd.

No doubt the defense contractors are supplying big bucks to the Romney's campaign and superpacs.

[Johonny]

36. I disagree

People thought Donald Rumsfeld and the last lot were going to go in and revolutionize the military complex. They didn't. Instead the industrial military complex is at sort of a cross roads. It's been like 12 years since good new ideas and programs were started. The war has drained most of the budget away from creativity into just basic war making. A lot of big named complex companies you'd think would be loving it right now are hurting and cutting jobs. The industrial military complex is how the country does things like science and Aerospace as well as build aqueducts and things like that. 10+years of foreign wars hasn't been any kinder to those in it than the rest of society. Even the military industrial complex is wondering why people like Romney want to keep building boats that can't float, planes no one wants to fly and fight foreign wars no one will win. I think most in it would just as happy building that Apollo project on alternative energy. I mean the complex will do anything even good things if you tell it that's where the money is.

[JaneQPublic]

37. I work in the military industrial complex, and Romney is seen as their savior.

Yes, jobs are being cut and salaries are being capped, but the powers that be in the industry blame Obama for the diminished flow of money. (They're totally oblivious to the economic situation in the rest of the country.)

All I hear is "just wait until the election; things will get better then," with their assumption being that Romney is sure to win.

Also, keep in mind, that the "military industrial complex" profits from the "basic war making" as well as wiz-band new research and development. In fact, in the VA-MD-DC area here, much of the "Beltway Bandit" contractors and consultants are professional services providers, of technical, engineering, logistics, and management support, for instance.

You can bet all these corporations -- as well as the big defense manufacturers -- are backing Romney every way they can... and hoping and praying he starts a war with Iran as soon as possible.

[RKP5637]

5. It's all about money, big money in defense contracts, the profitable MIC and

world domination. It has nothing to do with the actual defense of the country and nothing to do with the majority of the citizens. The rich guys are making big bucks, and what is sad, really sad, we have enough literally stupid Americans to go right along with ideas like this.

[JHB]

6. Hey, that's what Ronald Reagan did, to it's proven to work!...

...will be the sales pitch.

Adding up with the rest of his platform isn't something that concerns him, because the rest of his platform already doesn't add up. It's pure pandering to addicts whose "hits" are Reaganite buzzwords.

[spin]

7. I wonder just who he attends to attack ...

and how many nations he wishes to covert to our system of representative democracy.

The world's top 5 military spenders in 2010.
Figures sourced from the SIPRI Yearbook 2011



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

[TBF]

10. You're forgetting the entire solar system -

Mars, Venus, Jupiter ... plenty of places to bomb.

[spin]

19. True. We need to put military bases on the Moon and Mars ...

in order to face the inevitable alien invasion.

I should note that I am not opposed to the exploration of space by mankind. There might well be resources on the moon or asteroids which we can use and the development of the technology to achieve such efforts might prove beneficial to our civilization and be far more useful than developing better means to kill our supposed enemies.

Our success in landing men on the moon has to a great extent led to my ability to make this post and has resulted in many advances in science and medicine that has contributed to my life and the lives of many others.

However in order to journey to the stars we have to overcome our species innate desire for warfare.

[BumRushDaShow]

28. Remember that Getrich promised a colony on the moon 8 years from now

[spin]

33. The Chinese are planning to put a man on the moon by 2025 ...

but that's a long way from a colony.

In September 2010, it was announced that the country is planning to carry out explorations in deep space by sending a man to the Moon by 2025. China also hopes to bring a moon rock sample back to Earth in 2017, and subsequently build an observatory on the Moon's surface. Ye Peijian, Commander in Chief of the Chang’e programme and an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, added that China has the "full capacity to accomplish Mars exploration by 2013."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_space_program#Goals

[TBF]

34. Agree completely -

if they'd even use half the funds they currently appropriate for warfare towards technological development, medical research, etc ... it would be amazing.

[Brickbat]

8. That's his jobs plan.

[Phhhtttt]

9. What a dumbass!

The empire is collapsing slowly.Romney wants to bring the collapse more quickly before people can get ready for the inevitable.

[Tennessee Gal]

11. And just how will he pay for it? nt

[KakistocracyHater]

31. with words, of course

silly of you to ASK!

[jp11]

12. Why is it okay to increase government waste on useless overly complex

pie in the sky ways to kill people, circumvent and destroy the rights of our own citizens while lining the pockets of many crooked war profiteer corporations?

No other country in the world spends as much as we do by far NOW why do we need to spend even more?

Couldn't we spend that money on actually making our country better for our citizens and our children instead of putting into action the narrow fear inspired 'we must crush them' thinking technologies or paying some corporation to provide services for the military that the government would do at cost?

Oh no Willard needs to ramp up military spending to show how he is a bigger 'man' than the president who has made the sacrosanct republican issue of being strong on the military defunct. The only way to try and recapture that republican issue is to go stupid crazy and talk about Russia being our greatest threat, making it seem like all that needs to be done to fix our issues with China is to give them a stern talking to while increasing the military budget to show how tough you are.

"I will insist on a Military so powerful no one will ever think of challenging it." Willard Mitt Romney

[Ghost of Huey Long]

15. imagine if we spent that money on alternative energy

Then imagine if we used our great wealth to help other countries get alternative energy, cleaner and better for the entire globe.

We could end the need for wars over resources, spread some good will, and stop pollution and global warming.


But these 'patriots' are too busy protecting us from nations that won't give us their resources, and protecting the Constitution by creating expensive Big Government programs like Homeland Security and the TSA to protect us from ourselves.

[KakistocracyHater]

32. but you can never end greed, & that is also what starts

wars, sadly.

[Ghost of Huey Long]

43. I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government better get out of the way

I dream of this day

"I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it."
Eisenhower




And Heck, Wall Street found a way to steal a lot more than the war profiteers so I am sure they are cashing in and heading there.

[DCBob]

14. Its good he is starting to make some specific promises.

This will help voters to more clearly differentiate the two candidates.

[flamingdem]

16. How can they sell this idea in today's economy?

Are voters that lame - I thought interventionism and military spending has become unpopular

[Individualism]

17. cut our services for that sadly

this is why i see the Republicans are the greater evil of the 2. because they tell us to embrace for austerity but not the military and the corporations. why can't we the people get a bailout out like the bankers and corporations?

[treestar]

18. And increase the deficit?

I thought that was a bad thing?

[sadbear]

20. It'll increase the deficit like this:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. So, who's to be the bogeyman he's going to erect?

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[LiberalAndProud]

23. Today it is Iran.

I look for Norquist to be named SoS under a Romney administration. If the voting public fails to read the tea leaves, we probably deserve what will come. When Bush was elected, I predicted a new war before the end of his first year. I was proven prophetic. I will make the same prediction if Romney gets the nod. We will have new wars for the run of his tenure.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. He'd better lower his sights considering how many wars the World's Mightiest Military have lost.

Even with all the extra troops and wonder weapons they can't even manage a draw.

[Rex]

22. Well of course he does...he represents the 1%.

And they make trillions off of war and the great war machine that will eat us all into homelessness. The man might as well be a corporation...no real difference imo.

[bhikkhu]

24. Well, there's Reagan all over again...

fine talk about shrinking government and fiscal responsibility, and letting the private sector grow by itself - but then mostly what he did was blow up the budget, blow up the deficit, and drove economic growth by massive increases in government spending.

It didn't work all that well at the time, and I don't know any sane person who thinks it would be a good idea now.

[Populist_Prole]

26. He's posturing/pandering to those who don't think he's far enough to the right

Sure his statement sound ridiculous to us, most people, even him deep down. To the wingnuts, those words are hunks of medium rare free-range beef. Maybe he figures it'll rally enough neocons with a Tom Clancy worldview to overcome the die-hard fundies that hate his religion.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Not only is he running Morning in America adds

but wants to parrot Reagan's defense policy...

Idiot there is a difference, Reagan actually, I know shocking RAISED TAXES seven times or so to pay for it.

[11 Bravo]

29. Mitt's always happy to put money on the line, but when it came to his own pasty ass, well ...

he preferred to take a bicycle tour of Paris. Another fucking candy-ass Republican chickenhawk!

[Octafish]

30. BFEE Forever

Work harder, peasants! Your military industrial crony capitalist complex demands it!

Thank you for the heads-up, bigtree.

[Odin2005]

35. My dipshit vet cousin supports this crap because he thinks he will get paid more.

[pa28]

38. He wants to anchor military spending to 4% of GDP.

We'd have mandatory spending levels. So, even in times of peace increased spending would be required.

The military would be forced to spend the money even if they did not need it to counter a known threat. They would have to develop new systems and weapons based on imaginary threats.

He's talking about a permanent welfare system for the military industrial complex.

[jmowreader]

39. I don't think how Romney wants to increase the defense budget is the way I want to...

Mitt W. Romney's first problem is he is talking about changing the dates and a few numbers on the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. Any sober analysis of the aftermath of that bill will show that it increased unemployment by 4.5 percent in its very first year, and that's not all it did. In fact, it worked SO well (to destroy the country, that is) that less than a year after its passage, the Congress forced Reagan to sign the largest tax increase in this nation's history--in percentage of GDP it has never been surpassed--to attempt to unfuck the American economy.

Seriously, guys, it would be very easy to increase the defense budget without buying any new ships, deathtrap airplanes or whatevers because thanks to running our equipment in the sandbox for the last ten years, all our tactical vehicles and most of our helicopters are worn out.

[Sirveri]

40. Did Japan bomb Pearl Harbor again and nobody told us?

I mean really, why...

[Xyzse]

41. Ugh, moron

Defense budget at this time should either be cut, or at the least kept at the current levels.

They need to know that there are diminishing returns in regards to defense spending, noting that you can only spend to a point for relative security. Actual improvements afterwards can be made through the relationships one fosters with other countries through diplomacy.

Just because they get turned on by long, big and hard missiles doesn't mean they need so much of them.

[Quantess]

42. That would be insane.

A Rmoney win would put the final nail in America's coffin.

[Ghost of Huey Long]

44. And here Romney gives us the easiest talking point of all

The lied to start two wars, want to start more wars, this is where the vast majority of tax dollars go...and yet they blame the poor for the mess they created and demand more more more!!!

It is time to say NO to the two year olds.

WE have a thing called logic in this country, and when we grow up we use it.