So when will the American people demand an end to these never-ending wars that are putting the nation into bankruptcy? We spend 53% of our total budget on the military. It costs 15-20 Billion dollars to run one aircraft carrier for one year. We have eleven aircraft carriers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aircraft_carriers_by_country the next country in terms of carriers is Italy which has two. The largest Air Force in the world is the US Air Force. The second largest air force is the US Navy. When will this militarism stop? When will the American people tell Washington to stop trying to conquer the world and fix the problems we have in the United States?
In terms of financial wealth in the U.S., the top one percent of Americans holds 42.7% of the wealth. The next 19% holds 50.3% of the wealth. The bottom 80% holds a paltry 7% of this nation's wealth. http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html Who controls America? It isn't you and it certainly isn't me. Our nation is drowning in debt. This can be reversed. You don't need to be an economist to understand where America's problems lie.
It will take millions of us to stop the charade that is running rampant in Washington. We need to stand up and let this government understand that we are aware of why we can't balance our government's budget or do more to get our students to receive a first class education. We need to tell the war-mongers in Washington that we have had enough of their hubris along with their wars. We need to do this now because if we don't, it will all fall apart like a house of cards. Everyone, conservative's, liberal's, those in the middle of the political spectrum and those at the extreme right or left need to join together to stop our nation from coming apart at the seams.
A Call to Action
We are in a crisis. We can't pay our creditors. We are printing money in order that we can give the rest of the world the appearance of solvency. Sooner than later our currency could become worthless. Like Rome, like Napoleon's France, Germany of World War II and especially the last months of the Soviet Union, our military spending will ultimately cause the nation to collapse under its own weight. Our elected members of Congress for the most part are either bought by the military industrial cabal or they are just inept. The massive transfer of wealth (the largest in history) that went to the financial entities on Wall Street in order to avert an economic meltdown that was caused by the very same segment who received the bail-outs was criminal. Yet to date, no one has been charged with a crime. In fact, billions of dollars are being paid out in bonuses like the ones at Morgan Stanley, one of the largest recipients of the bail-outs. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jan/14/jp-morgan-bankers-share-10bn
The partisan bickering in Washington has brought our government to a standstill. There is no real difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. They all work for the corporate entities that pay for their political campaigns. The American people desperately need to speak with one voice, the voice of reason. I'm sure that by now we all have had enough of the political theater that emanates from Washington and some States like Wisconsin.
The simple truth is that we can no longer spend on the military like drunken sailors. The military budget should not be sacrosanct. Total defense spending requested for FY 2012 was $881, less than the $895 billion requested in the FY 2011 budget. This was more than the $855 billion requested for FY 2010, and the Security and the War on Terror request of $782 billion in FY 2009. It includes Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Nuclear Administration and some State Department programs. Operations in Afghanistan and Iraq are also funded outside the Department of Defense base budget, to the tune of $118 billion.(Source: OMB,FY 2012 Budget, Table S-3) http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/military_budget.htm
Some estimates of actual military spending that includes the 14 different intelligence agencies and special appropriations (Like the one for Libya) bring the figure for defense spending to 1.5 Trillion dollars. How can this nation sustain this spending? The cold hard truth is that we can't. Americans need to show the government that we won't continue to spend ourselves into oblivion. We need to work TOGETHER to bring fiscal sanity back to the federal government. No matter what your political persuasion, we are all going to suffer the repercussion when America goes bankrupt by trying to conquer the world. It's happened before to many different empires and unless we revolt against this militarism peaceably, it will happen to America.
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