Reply #12: It's not an either/or question [View All]

We have the resources to do neither.

If we cut the defense department and all war appropriations entirely... we would still be in the hole.

The core problem we have is that we have a huge amount of embezzlement and fraud built into our current way of doing business, and nobody feels compelled to tell the truth. Until we fix that, our resources - no matter how distributed - will be inadequate for any serious purpose. We can't do business in this country anymore without finding half of everything stolen in the transaction. Until the laws against fraud are seriously enforced, there is nothing we can do to fix the problem.

Are we seriously going to sink another $600 billion we don't have into a healthcare system where the least productive services pull out the most cash? Another who-knows-how-much into an education system, where the real money gets hoarded so that boards of directors can play big shots in the capital market with university endowments, leaving the student with an eye-popping mountain of debt and an often worthless piece of paper (arguably in many cases, negative worth given the alternative amount of actual work experience) to show for it? What then do we say, in just a few years, when we suddenly lose the ability to pay Social Security without resorting to stealing it directly from all other holders of our currency through outright devaluation?

We need to fix our national finances first and foremost and make the sacrifices necessary to get the job done. Only then can we even begin to seriously consider changes that require us to spend money. Our nation needs to learn to live within its means, as so many individuals are rapidly discovering is now the only way to survive.