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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (16477)	4/8/2010 6:08:15 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 42652

what does China spend on the military, please include chinese military owned companies

To: Alighieri who wrote (16477)	4/8/2010 6:31:24 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 42652

OT We spend a lot more on our military than China. That's a given. We don't know precisely how much more but its a lot more. So what? 1 - The issue was debt and deficits. The most important part is future debt and deficits (we can talk about the past but we can't change it), defense is not a very large part of that picture. 2 - Moving the issue from debt and deficits to military utility and necessity, the level of China's spending doesn't determine what the appropriate level of American spending is. I'm not saying it has no effect on it, but China is not the only potential adversary. Also military confrontations and deterrence are not simple issues of how much money is spent. If you spend a lot more than your opponent than increasing spending even further can have positive effects in terms of deterrence or in defeating the enemy, or in lowering your casualties in any future conflict against the opponent. The main determinants of what is an appropriate level for the US to spend is how much of a burden is the spending on our economy. That's not the only issue. If we could defeat the rest of the world without losing one man, then doubleing our spending would be a bad idea even if it was only one part per a thousand of our economy, and it doesn't even have to get that extreme. At some point extra spending is primarily waste. But I submit the US isn't at that point. Our numbers of naval ships are going down to the the lowest level since the WWI era. Our bomber and tanker fleet is aging, as is the bulk of our front line fighter fleet. Our army has shrunk greatly from a few decades ago. Is this a real problem, does it mean our defense is inadequate? I'd say no, but it could easily become so if its slashed. If it was growing out of control like entitlements I'd probably say take the risk and take an axe to it anyway, but the spending simply isn't growing that way. Government medical care spending alone is already more than military spending and growing much faster (in part do to Obamacare, but even before)