We're Spending Too Much on Defense
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- How many killy things do we need before our country is safe from invasion? The United States defense budget is enormous-it's larger than the next eight largest countries combined, most of which we're buddies with.
---------
Subscribe to our RUclips channel: / reasontv
Like us on Facebook: / reason.magaz. .
Follow us on Twitter: / reason
Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: goo.gl/az3a7a
Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
---------
Mostly Weekly is hosted by Andrew Heaton with headwriter Sarah Rose Siskind.
Script by Andrew Heaton with writing assistance from Sarah Rose Siskind, Brian Sack, and David Fried
Edited by Austin Bragg and Sarah Rose Siskind.
Produced by Meredith and Austin Bragg.
Theme Song: Frozen by Surfer Blood.
3:57 "Listen I'm not anti-military. I have camo pajamas. I lost my virginity while watching Patton." The most beautiful sentence I've ever heard.
We can cut the defense budget without cutting defense.
*Democrats and Republicans screech in terror*
Honestly... we can literally spend zero dollars on ‘defense’ for AT LEAST a decade and our stockpile ALONE would be an enough deterrent
Also despite popular belief China, North Korea, Russia & Venezuela is not a military threat to the United States
can’t *
@@michaelhalejr516 Yeah no one wants to fight a war over oceans. If they did it would be so easy for the US to attack convoys from any position they choose. It would be a slog for China to land and take every US island in the pacific.
@@ee-ef8qr Well... Taiwan would like a word with you.
Fill-in-the-blank-istan!!! XD
Please do a show on Bretton Woods.
I have no issue with cutting unnecessary spending, but when it comes to our defense spending we need to be very very careful. I would like to remind those who might not remember that our founding fathers specifically designed our government in a way that includes massive military spending with minimal social spending.
I would also like to remind everyone that politics isn’t as simple as “I want (insert thing here) done”. If Republicans were to cut defense spending to help lower our debt, in turn allowing lower taxes and an improved economy, the Democrats would just push even harder for more socialistic policy.
Air Force veteran here. I completely agree with cutting defense spending. I hate how people think if you cut spending from it that you somehow hate the military.
Just blitzkrieg the world. Why haven't we conquered the world if we spend that much on government
No word on the trillions we spend supporting non-productive people.
Defense is not only for military purposes but to protect interests, such as shipping lanes and trade agreements.
The military has been cut by over 1/3 of its share of the budget in the last 30 years, while being expected to do more.
When Welfare and Social Insecurity have had their share of the pie hacked to the same degree, come back and we can talk.
(Immigrant veteran. 6 years Army, 19 USAF, retired)
That's because this video is about military spending.
I absolutely agree. We spend nearly over 60% of our defense budget on operations, maintenance and personnel and only 10% of it on R&D. We have nearly 800 bases around the world.
It won't be easy to cut defense spending but it won't be hard.
As a Combat Veteran I agree that we decrease spending on defending other countries. Our defense budget should be high but countries that need our protection should need to pay and that is counting the countless ones that we don't even have a base or land in.
He is so right. We could cut the budget in half and start paying off our debt.
I worked for a contractor and saw so much waste in the spending. It's such a scam. The goal is to spend up the money buy the end of the fiscal year even if you don't need to so the company can ask for more from the government the next year.
@@Count_Nathan You disagreed with him while saying things that agree.
"crony capitalism" goes by the name of Keynesianism.
Austrian Gang
Greetings my fellow Hayekians
frosy2114: no, Keynsianism is Kommunism. Crony Capitalism is Totalitarian Democracy.
As detrimental as Keynesianism would be, the US government and Federal Reserve follow an even worse model. Instead of saving/repaying debt in the good times and spending/issuing debt in the bad, the government spends/issues debt in the good times and spends more/issues more debt in the bad.
More like “bastard Keynesianism.” Keynes wanted to CUT government spending during economic expansions but the crony capitalists would have none of that.
“I lost my virginity watching Patton”
I’ve found it. I found how I want to lose my virginity
Now you just have to find a willing partner.
@@mirzaahmed6589 2 years later..the search continues
We’re spending too much in the US all over! Period.
hyperman717 no most other departments like education are very underfunded
The Church of Tire Jesus well not really as much, just misused. I totally agree that teachers are underpaid and classes are to big and students don't get enough attention. But the US already paid way more per student than the countries that are above them in education. But to much of that money goes to sports teams and buocracy, sports teams, advertisement and mangers and the board of schools.
And why do we need a Department of Education to begin with? Education is a state, and even more so, a local issue! I agree with you, Lucas van Wijk, that teachers and classrooms probably need more money, but that should resolved on the local level.
Brian Forbes because red states will massively underfund their schools
@@thechurchoftirejesus1722 BS. USA is one of the top spenders on education. Money is not the problem. Poor management is.
"Diminishing returns" pretty much sums it up.
"Defense!?" you mean "Offense?"
Used to be called Ministry of War,shouldn t have changed it in my opinion
I support cutting everything the federal government spends money on by at least 20%
We're not spending enough on defense. We're spending too much on contractors, unneeded weapons systems, bases overseas, wars with no real strategy, domestic bases and a million other things while training, pay and benefits for the actual men and women that serve and maintenance and repair of existing equipment suffers. Everyone in Congress wants a piece of the military/industrial complex for their home state or district. That is the real problem.
Dan & Jen Nevada Hear, hear! Succinct and well put.
you'd think all the people serving in the military are swimming in the money but most of the time it's not the case.
We're spending too much on defense, but the problem is a little more complex than the amount of spending.
Like many other departments of government there is no incentive to conserve money. People have to justify their budgets and if they don't spend everything they have plus solicit Congress for more they risk getting downsized.
The military industrial complex doesn't go away just because we stop hiring contractors. In fact costs would significantly increase if we didn't have defense contractors, but even private companies will blow thru funds if they get a blank check from the Pentagon. The reason private companies are generally more efficient at providing services than the government is the profit motive and the fact that their own money tends to be on the line.
Yeah so you know what your solution is?
Take away the money! Force the military to become more economical that’s the only worthwhile solution, $700B when the US is digging a black hole of debt is unfathomable
mikebtko why do racists write so much? 🙄
Down with debt... And entitlements
But would it? If there was no social security, people would have more money to save and invest more wisely.
I think we can spend 40% of our income more wisely, man
Well I agree with the first part of your comment. I think we all need that money. And imagine ho many more people we could help voluntarily with an extra 40% of our income.
I beg to differ. Few people receive government funding and most could easily get good employment if government were shrunk drastically.
Im a compassionate person but I also want people to live for themselves.
Andrew Heaton is gods gift to the world
The problem is that we in the United States serve as the military for Eastern Europe, Japan, South Korea, and the Caribbean.
TargetToad 9/99/99 You mean Europe, not just the East. The German and British armies couldn't occupy a Walmart with their budgets.
Actually your serve as the military for Europe because you want to, who set up NATO?
Tech Blogger Some fat Cat bankers mainly
We should make UN and NATO pay their fair share or leave them defenseless!!!! Wonder what they would say when communists, religious radicals, and power hungry anarchists flood their countries!!!
They all wish you would just F off.
this should be viral 🤗
I'm so happy we can agree on this issue
my is you still have almost half the country who doesn’t though.
I'm sure we dont agree on the physical removal issue
+Gadge Schwahl
If I know what you mean, then I can assure you that virtually no one agrees with you on that.
nigel106 maybe start with 800 bases, unless someone else pays for protection?:)
Lets say you keep 80 avarage bases on your expense, you save 135 billions.
And maybe enforce “2% spending nato rule” so your companies wouldn’t suffer.
Yet people groaned when Obama the "communist" shut down even a few government contracts for NASA, leading to plants getting shut down and people losing their jobs. Because that's one of the things all that money pays for: it's a huge subsidy for well-paying engineering jobs. "Saving money" sounds great, but when thinking about the political feasibility shutting down such waste, you have to consider that many people are employed in subsidized corporations.
Hey, I work for one of those killy thing companies on one of those foreign non-killy bases!
And I can confirm that the waste is amazing.... I have personally seen more completely unnecessary/unjustifiable waste than I will ever make in my life.
Fricking Kevin
Armt Dawg open borders for Kevin
Hey, Frick you too.
Kevin Spacey
This is my favorite segment on reason, it needs SO much more attention 😂
You like the stupidest presentations best?
Mike Williamson yes. Libertarians have so many heavy handed explanations, and that's fine and all, but we really need some attention grabbing media.
600 Billion WTF? Yes what the financial, indeed!
Heh, does anyone think Russia is getting invaded.
I'm definitely gonna add 'Fillintheblankistan' to my vocabulary
"Does anybody really think Russia is at risk of getting invaded? Of course not!"
Yeah, that aged REALLY poorly.
Let's be real here, between all the powers funneling money and technology into Ukraine right now, they blow Russia's budget out of the water.
only 600 billion?
what about that 2.2 trillion that went disappeared in Pentagon on 9/10 2001
Bravo too you sir, funny the timing there...
How? I hear the irs in the USA can track if you give thousands of dollars to a family member and they want you to explain how you got those thousands.
Maybe he was exaggerating
Anyone with military background knows first hand how crazy the spending is.
Russia spends less only in absolute terms. However as a % of GDP Russia spends more money on military. Its not America's fault Russia has a shitty economy.
Russian economy is the size of Italy's economy. How many are surprized that America can spend more money on military than Italy?
Evilsamar You are aware that we have a 20 trillion dollar dept? We might be able to spend more than Italy, but not much more.
As much as I love our military. We are spending wayyyyyyy too much. We should stop being the military of other country’s and force them to pay for their own.
Cute. Now take a look at the spending in the Medical-Industial Complex?
I love his work. The libertarian additions of movies, tv shows are the shit.
As a libertarian I would like to piss off both sides. That's why we need to cut entitlement and defense spending.
Joking aside, we really need to stop spending money on useless killy things. We could close down 80% of our overseas bases, reduce our armed forces by 80% and still be just as safe and still have enough money left over to keep our military fully stocked with killy things for many years to come.
As a veteran, I agree with this 100%. We spend entirely too much on, for the most part, junk. The problem isn't that we spend a lot. OK, we spend a lot, and yes, that *is* a problem, but that's not the issue here. The issue lies with lobbyists and no actual oversight on the companies that take contracts for our equipment. Ironically, it's capitalism that has bitten us in the ass here. Capitalism and cronyism. The way the system works now is that different companies will bid on different contracts such as who gets to make what equipment. Much like in construction, the company that bids the least gets the contract. Problem is, they're all bidding way too high to begin with, and because the market is so woefully small, they can get away with it. Much like the robber barons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these guys have a virtual monopoly on the MIC. Companies like Boeing, Lockheed, and others get contracts for the most mundane items like hammers and common tools, things we could be going to places like Wal-Mart for and buying for ourselves, but because they have that contract, we can't. We *have* to use the hundred dollar piece of shit hammer Boeing provides us because some shady assholes in some back office in DC shook their greasy palms. The problem, in a word, is mass corruption in our government, and both sides blame it on the other while both are filthy in their involvement. The last guy claimed he was going to drain the swamp, but from where I sit, looks like they need a bigger bottle of goldbond.
Navy Vet and full blown Libertarian here. Mostly agree. While I do believe you spend way too much on useless bases, and spend way to much on equipment and vehicles we don't need more of. The issue with the Military isn't that the budget isnt big enough, its issue is that its to inconsistent. Commanding Officers do not know how much to spend and on what for their locations because they're not sure what the next years budget is. so they spend as little as possible through the year, then rush everything they have left towards the end of the year after they find out the next years budget. We can easily close dozens of bases, cut defense spending by 10-20 percent, and still increase efficiency and overall defense. The one thing i do somewhat disagree with here though is the idea of overseas bases. We are the Free World's number 1 defender, we are not just responsible for our own defense but the defense of our allies around the world. This is the shaky subject to where we have to decide does having a base in a allied country make them safer, and at the same time think about what they day about the US to the public and argue why are we defending those who attack us in a different manner. The US has 4 true adversaries. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. Our military and its bases should focus on the best defense and counter offensive on these countries and there possible allies alone. We would be even more affective in combating these adversaries should the need arise, as well as save billions on top of it.
The Russia invading comment not aging so well lol. They getting creamed. But yeah cut the spending
Defense budget does need to be fixed, but you completely ignore the purchasing power in each nation. The same labor, enlistsments, and gear in America is more expensive than in Russia or China. Also, do you really believe what they say when they tell you how much they are spending?
It is also not just the spending but also the corruption that goes along with it. Russia spent a ton of money on “defense” in order to become the second best military . . . currently fighting in Ukraine.
I am all for smaller government but when it comes to defense it is important to be able to whoop every country in the world 3x over. USA USA USA USA!!!
it's not "defense" it's offense, because all we do is export war to other countries
9-11 was 20 years ago, no one is threatening our freedom other than big corps and paid for politicians
Sorry, but you have to include the VA @ 260B as part of the cost of war. Figures aren’t accurate without that.
Yes, yes, we've all heard we pay more than X countries combined, but how much is that compared to OUR GDP?
We have a trillion bucks for a shitty JSF but my units running around with 50 year old rifles smh. And were not even Marines
I don't have a problem with a big ass defense. I got a problem with a big ass offense that goes to random countries every couple of years. It might as well be called the offense budget at this point
Yes but but the reason for are huge military budget is because we provide military defense for the entire "free" world (I put free in quotes because some of these countries aren't nearly as free or at least their citizens aren't nearly as free) get the rest of the world to crank up their military spending then we can lower ours
I miss this segment so much.
Ah Patton. George C Scott has driven more dudes out of No Fap streaks than any other thing.
Does this take into account the fact that we have NATO deals and in deals that cost us money and require us to put bases in places
It's mostly about politicians wasting money. and politicians wasting money on over priced contractor killythings
friendly neighbors to the north yes, but i don't think mexico is very fond of the usa
It's not the biggest thing... Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, department of education, and other social welfare programs are more than 3 times that.
I wanted to be mad at this guy for what he was saying but I was laughing too hard. Not fair play guys! LOL
Haha regardless of your stance this is funny lol except Kevin
Why did you want to be mad at him I mean he speaks the truth.
I'm not an U.S citizen, never been in U.S. but i like You. I believe that U.S. government could easily cut expenses by just simply get more rational spending. One example that ULA's one lunch is like $423 million, Spacex is like $100 per lunch. If You want to survive as a superpower Your government need to change way of thinking about spending money, not less money just more rational. You got one money well like F22, instead trying to adopt this fighter to Navy they decided to make next generation plane thats is so costly and it's looks like price is going high.
Not only yours, same in Europe. Its looks like legalized bribery, when gov. move money in regions that support them the most, making contracts to companies that are helpful in campaigns. I get it that you need to bribe your voters to rule a country but you also need to not fuck up this country by making more debt spending money on unnecessary things and save on infrastructure.
Chuck Kline don't be mad this isn't an argument against the military it's talking about shutting down useless bases like those in Germany and maybe try spending money of education and inferstructure
Remember other countries don’t pay their soldiers.
The United States Armed Forces needs to modernize while keeping within a "reasonable budget"....because I'm not for excessive waste, fraud, and abuse or our Armed Forces being world cops.....
Wow. I just watched about 5 of these and now realize I'm a Libertarian.
But then again, if you've been registered non-partisan your whole kinda long adult life aren't you really a Libertarian anyway?
And then all of sudden joe biden rolls up and spends 13 trillion lol
Its amazing your channel is called Reason yet this man lacks all reason. He fails to go into what that money is used for; military/defense are incredibly broad terms when speaking about the budget. The US helps protect dozens of countries that do not have standing armies. The US is also extremely generous to countries we fight along side and fight against. If America accidentally destroys personal property in let's say Iraq, we help pay to reconstruct the property or purchase a new one, and that comes out of the defense budget. I'm all for lowering the national spending and I'm sure there is a lot of waste in nearly every American government department, but its disingenuous to call out a large budget without getting into the details of where that money goes, and saying it just goes to "killy things" is just an indication of your bias and unsophisticated perspective on the issue.
Great point, want to cut the welfare spending now？
not even a Kevin spacy Joke ages well anymore
As long as America protects Canada, it's all good in polar bear country.
Still tiny compared to social security.
Trace of sharks or Kevin Spacey 😂
I think this is the funniest segment I've seen you do. Who wrote this? Don't tell me Mostly Andrew Heaton because I can't slap you through the screen.
Answer? Make the the military "tri-service" and consolidate our logistics program.
The focus of topic should be " how to spend the defence budget more wisely", not just "oh the numbers are so big so we should just cut it by half".
Nah cut it in half it's way too high.
Give every us citizen 450 bucks back and then spend wisely.
Feel so sorry for all hard-working tax payers, a lot money is wasted.
Half of the money spent is probably lost in bureaucracy.
Cutting the budget means trimming the waste from _every_ sector. Some sectors could use serious cutbacks, but _every_ sector could cutback something.
Close some bases? OK. Sell the land? NO! (what? So we can buy it back for 10X cost?
I used to think we could increase our military spending by a bit before I read this piece from the LA Times:
In Syria, militias armed by the Pentagon fight those armed by the CIA (www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-cia-pentagon-isis-20160327-story.html)
Now, I think Ron Paul might be onto something.
The big problem is that a large defense budget actually makes us weaker. Modern military might is closely tied to economic strength. If the defense budget grows too large, it stifles economic growth. This in turn stifles our ability to defend ourselves.
A small defense budget is a problem as well. If we don't have enough defense jobs, trained workers move to other fields. Then, when danger looms, there are no trained people to design new weapons.
It's a balancing act. So when the military says it doesn't want something, maybe take their word for it?
That whirring sound you hear is the sound of Eisenhower spinning over in his grave.
I miss you, Mostly Weekly ❤️
Best web series on the net...
Being the world police costs
Thing this video is right about: There is too much waste in military spending.
Thing this video is wrong about: The "big wars" are in America's past.
There is the saying ”they will run out of bullets eventually.” That doesn’t apply to America’s defense budget. How else do you think we won the Cold War
The irony is the USA does not, in fact, maintain a huge ammo surplus. It is an odd thing, nearly all the budget goes into operating expenses, R&D, and new equipment.
Didn't the USSR collapse by itself? It wasn't an actual war. Maybe there's a joke I'm missing.
I’ll be honest this is the one thing I’m glad my taxes go to, I do think we spend a little much, but I do think we should have the most spending on our military.
Hearing about some of the stories of some military bases (Mikeburnfires's story of Fort Polk and its incompetence), I think the military is good with a bit of defunding
Dont cut the budget. Train our military employees to do actual work instead of hiring private contractors and paying them double what the military makes.
Hey, at least military spending is a legitimate role of government. Welfare and social security isn't, which constitute a way bigger part of the budget and the federal debt.
This is the funniest oversimplification I've ever seen
If one includes "international assistance" (e.g. USAID), we have gobs of spending that could be axed & should. Funny how even most Democrats brought themselves to vote for the recent NDAA.
The BCA was supposed to limit this out-of-control spending. In prior years, Congress used OCO (Overseas Contingency Operations) as a slush fund to avoid the caps. Now they're just flipping taxpayers the bird, they do NOT care.
Here are some items we could cut in our Pentagon/Defense budget & have enough to upgrade our Navy: We could end the nuclear triad (delivering nukes via bombers, land-based silos & submarines) by delivering a nuke (if needed) by subs. End our relationship/subsidies to NATO. We don't need to protect Europe from Russia or ISIS. Europe is wealthy enough & has a large enough population to do it themselves. No more missile defense systems in Europe, unless Europe does it themselves.
We don't need the United Nations, it should go. We don't need a large, massive, bloated *standing* Army. The Founders bristled at such a thing, it's way too large (our Navy is a wonderful deterrent--does it deter everyone? Nope, but it sure has the firepower to deal w/ a nuisance).
We don't need all of these military bases in Europe & SK, nor do we need to assist Saudi Arabia in it's war w/ Yemen. Assisting Saudi Arabia is akin to assisting the Castros. They're evil.
exit question: How many Carrier groups do we need to protect these United States (Not patrol the entire Pacific)?
Maybe, just maybe if we did less "over there" trying to keep them from coming "over here"--less of them would want to come "over here" & kill people. Just some food for thought.
PS, we've been on the Korean Peninsula since my father was barely walking--is it safer over there?
Same dynamic applies to criminal justice, education, medical, even NASA. Inevitable due to our 2-party winner-take-all political structure.
dont let the neocons see this
its not defense... it offense
A couple of weekends ago, I was listening to Vermont Public Radio. They did a bit on the F-35s in Vermont. Much was said regarding Vermont being chosen to hose the F-35 and allowing the Vermont National Guard to use them. At no point was Bernie mentioned.
I agree with the context that we shouldnt squander money. But at the time if this video our military had been decemated by obama. I believe the biggest problem to be paying way more than things are worth. Even well built custom "military" machines would be far less in cost if ordered from the private sector. So pay a fair price. End wasteful spending. And keep a strong budget to maintain a reasonable defense.
Cut defense spending, yes, but there are a lot of things to go after first. The fed gov has a responsibility to defend the nation. Defense spending can be justified.
There is a lot of spending that cannot be justified at all.
I say start with actually vetting people on Social Security Disability. You do not need a $1500 a month check for being bipolar.
Then we wonder why the country is struggling internally economically.
Britain dominated the seas by basically spending as much as they needed to defeat the next two largest naval powers at the same time. I think we could probably set our budget the same way if we were better at effectively designing things.
Why no money?
3:20 “French Arkansas” AKA Quebec. LOL!
Although I agree that some money could be saved in the military I think this clip spent too much time trying to be "hip and with it" and not nearly enough time taking a real world acknowledgement of the global benefits that come from America's defense spending and global projection of power. The, "we don't have any enemies that are going to invade us" argument is simplistic to the point of being disingenuous.
Double it!
I’m for a very strong defense while also cutting back on military spending in a wise way-not the way Obama led the military.
At the end of every fiscal year my dad said he had to waste money to make the government happy. That's the issue
A O 1 grade officer is payed around 105 grand while active. After receiving any amount of college they would like they tend work for about 10 years then retire at 45 why Will because when you have Social Security in their other cash benefits A O1 will make about 130k a year 01 is basically the equivalent of a construction site foreman or healthcare administrator and those people will basically work until dead paying for this guys benefits
And people complain about welfare... This is military industrial welfare... *And none of it helps Veterans*
I thought Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex?
We could all be rich but let’s buy more tanks and aircraft’s instead. Who cares about happiness, paying your rent, or buying food?