Havoc Pennington has a great post entitled Which Piece of Big Government Are You Against?
War on Terror + DoD ~= 21.6% of our budget. I know we can’t cut it all, but a guy can dream can’t he? 
My favorite line is in regards to how different political parties approach budgetary spending:
Republicans and Democrats judged by actions not rhetoric: government should be 105% of whatever it just was. Disagreement on where the new 5% goes.
So true. Neither party has been fiscally conservative (or even responsible) for the past 30 years. The Republicans just spend more on bombs while the Dems spend it on evil socialist programs like welfare.
Emphasis added to denote sarcasm.
I’d much rather my tax dollars paid for some poor person’s laziness (as many conservatives see welfare) than have it spent bombing the same country into oblivion twice in a bit over a decade.
It is sad to see us throw away 9% of our federal budget on interest payments. Hopefully our economy will recover quickly enough for President Obama to start paying back the deficit like Clinton did in the 90s.
Whether life is hopeless due to conflict or hopeless due to enslavement in the entitlement cycle may not be so terribly different. Neither is what most of us start out to be part of but circumstances outside our control play a part. Forty-one percent of Americans not paying any federal income tax is one problem. Entitlements are 65% of the federal budget, 21% for defense is probably a bargain given the world we live in.
“Hopefully our economy will recover quickly enough for President Obama to start paying back the deficit like Clinton did in the 90s.”
When there were still a few fiscally conservative Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Moderate presidents tend to be able to accomplish things.
The issue is that Bush was so awful, and Obama so polarizing (he can’t help he’s black people, get over that subconscious issue for WAY too many of you) that any idea of moderation is gone and we’re stuck doing nothing. Like usual.
I’d be all for cutting 8-10% off Defense/Homeland Security if we also put in cuts in other programs. Ya know what, I’ll go blog my comments on this and you can rip into them there.