WAY TOO MUCH PIE for the military, nothing left for US

[kpete]

I want MORE PIE!

[truebluegreen]

1. Veterans' Benefits and a good chuck of the Energy budget

should be included in the "Military"...which of course makes the obscenely unbalanced picture even worse.

[Scuba]

2. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... just what is the defense budget defending?

[CrispyQ]

8. THAT is the question to ask of those who defend the military budget.

Sadly, they don't see that the answer is "It's a ruse, to siphon the Treasury to the 1%," even though this chart is proof of that.

[avebury]

11. Our Corporate Overlords and the 1%.

You know that they have to be looking for a way to use the military internally at some point.

[Scuba]

12. Yeah, it was a rhetorical question.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. But, but Rand Paul said there wasn't enough money left over for defense!

While speaking at a fundraiser in Tennessee, Paul said about Christie and New York Representative Peter King, “They’re precisely the same people who are unwilling to cut the spending, and their ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme—give me all my Sandy money now.’ Those are the people who are bankrupting the government and not letting enough money be left over for national defense.”

http://www.forwardprogressives.com/rand-paul-mocks-hurricane-sandy-victims-eliminates-any-chance-at-a-presidential-bid/

[LisaLynne]

6. Well, duh.

Just look at all those other colors that aren't military spending! Why are we starving our military???

[darkangel218]

4. This is what i dont fuking get

How can we possibly spend so much money on Military when everything else is falling apart?

Schools are being closed down, hospitals lose their funding, health care is getting more and more expensive, our roads and bridges are colapsing? Wtf is going on? Why arent more people demanding a cut in military spendings?? Is it "unpatriotic" to want that? Is that it?

[avebury]

9. Because the only way tha the US can try to maintain

world dominance is via military might. If you look at history, things change, one group will rise up to power, maintain power and then go into decline and the next group will rise up and go through the same cycle. It is time that we recognize that our time of global dominance is passing and we had better focus on trying to rebuild our country from within. We have become the neighborhood bully that we have fought against for decades.

[darkangel218]

13. But why are people supporting this?

The Congress votes the budget spendings, right?

[avebury]

15. Out Government has spent way too much time

fear mongering to the point that way too many people have lost the concept of common sense. In addition, Congress does not give a hoot what the people want, they will do what they want to do.

[CrispyQ]

5. There are a lot of ways to secretly siphon off money when you have 57% of the pie to suck off of.

It's disgraceful. This is not just at the feet of Obama, it's the entire nation. I know many people who would look at that & ask, "What's the problem?"

[LisaLynne]

7. It's been this way for a really long time and I just don't ...

understand how ANYONE -- ANYONE -- can think it makes sense. Yeah, sure, some people support this because they are making money off of it -- they are getting chunks of that dark blue slice. But, even so, come on. It's just so ... insane I can't even wrap my head around it.

[raccoon]

10. Man, this sucks. Wish I could rec this 100 times. nt

[moondust]

14. Back in the US, back in the US,

back in the USSR!

Spending wayyyy too much on the military was one of the big reasons, if not the biggest, for the long decline and ultimate collapse of the USSR. But hey, it made them a "superpower"!

As for the US, I don't know if it's about politicians' insatiable hunger for destructive power, rewarding their cronies and home districts with defense contracts, keeping the wheels of capitalist industry from grinding to a halt, domination of the planet and unilateral assured destruction, or something else. Probably some combination of things.

[progressoid]

16. Woohoo! Now that's changetastic.