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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: DuckTapeSunroof who wrote (46652)	10/21/2010 6:09:18 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Even if we would not have spent a penny on defense if it was no for oil imports, the defense budget still wouldn't be a subsidy for oil, its a public good, no more a subsidy for oil, than police forces are a subsidy for banks, because cops go after bank robbers. But without oil imports, being a concern our peacetime military spending would be about the same (except to the extent that supplies of oil or alternatives in the US might drive the cost of fuel and lubrication down, and thus make providing military costs lower, but that's a factor of oil as a cost to the military, not military services as a subsidy for oil). We would want to dominate the seas if our oil production was high enough to be an exporter. Also the control of the seas also helps alternatives to the extent they rely on imports for raw materials, intermediate materials, components, or finished product, or to the extent we export any of the above. So if your counting it towards oil, you'd also probably have to count it towards solar cells.