Thursday, September 8, 2011

Unaffordable Luxury

Last night MSNBC had a Republican Presidential candidate debate (didn't look anything like a debate ... more like Romney/Perry glamour show).

During the session, Ron Paul was the only candidate who spoke of the unending mandates. Ron Paul also advocated for reducing foreign excursions and to spend half of the saved funds on reducing the national debt and the other half on social programs at home.

Ron Paul is right. Military adventurism is a luxury we can no longer afford
[Ron Paul] remarked in the latest Republican presidential candidate debate in the Ronald Reagan Library:
I was astonished! We are spending twenty billion dollars on air conditioning for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I would take all that away, use ten billion to pay down the debt, and use the other ten toward FEMA and any other agency that we really need. And if you took that air conditioning away, those troops would come home very quickly, and I’d be happy with that.
...

Foreign military adventures are a luxury the free West can no longer afford.

To put Paul's remarks into perspective, consider these shocking figures from Mark Steyn's terminally bleak new masterpiece After America.
In 2010 the US spent about $663 billion on its military; China about $78 billion. How is it financing this massive expenditure? By borrowing money, mainly from China. Within a decade the US will be spending more of the federal budget on interest payments than it does on its armed services.

...

If things are going to get as bad as I think they're going to get, we need to start taking Ron Paul and his ideas much, much more seriously.