andyt andyt:
Actually, with the enormous amounts of money the military chows down, the place to start cutting salaries. After all those people are serving their country, so they should be doing it out of a sense of duty, not what the country can do for them. And cut their pensions, once they're used up, let em get jobs in the real world like everybody else. And what's up with all those health benefits they get - let em get private insurance like the rest of America - maybe give them an HMO plan or something. Those people have been sucking off the government tit for far too long. The free ride is over.
You don't even need to cut military salaries/pensions all that much, maybe 5% or something. After all, there are over a million people in the US armed forces. That should save billions every year.
But if you really want to save money, just slice off 1% or 2% of new capital purchases. Instead of ordering 2500 JSFs, order 2450-2475 and save a ton of money (65 JSF are going to cost Canada about $9 billion for the planes and another $6-7 billion in maintenance over their lifespan). They wouldn't save that much because unit cost would increase a bit, but I'm sure they could save at least a few billion with just that one purchase.
Of course, some people will say that the USA needs a dozen supercarriers (when no other naiton even fields one), 2500+ fifth generation fighters (when the only other 5th generation fighters in the world are in the hands of the NATO allies), and so on.
There is nothing wrong with the US spending big bucks on defence if they feel it is a priority, but does it really need to spend the same and the next 10 nations COMBINED? I guess you get the government you elect - and for three generations Americans have elected one that insists on outspending everyone else in the world on defence. At some point, someone needs to draw a line.
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