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China: U.S. Spends Too Much on Military

You dont have to be a liberal to recognize there are significant areas for cuts in the DoD budget, just like there are in every area of the fed. We continue to pay for pork projects solely because certain congressmen lobby for them, not because the military wants them. We continue to spend money on R and D projects with concepts sold by contractors that never come to fruition. Defense contractors hire retired colonels and generals, then get them to pitch concepts for contracts awarded and signed by general and colonols that are about to retire and end up working at...shockingly...that same defense contractor. They then have 7-10 years to run the project and if the idea is accepted after the investment then MORE cash is dumped into the program...if it is rejected (and MOST concepts never get beyond the concept and R and D stage) then the contract just expires and they move on to some new sales pitch.

Oh, no, no, no! Everyone KNOWS we need $500 screwdrivers and $1000 toilet seats
 
Clearly, we should listen to China when determining our defense budget.
:roll:

Clearly, we should do the opposite of whatever China says. They'll never catch on and just say the opposite of what they really want :roll:

Some people think we should make decisions independent of what the chinese think or say. I know, it's a radical idea.
 
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We provide security for much of the world. Charging for it sounds good. When do we start?
Seriously, do we make money with defense spending? Do arms sales count, and how much? Just curious.

But I think what's really going on is that they know they are going to own the U.S. economically anyway in the near future, they can't help but want us to trim a little fat to boost the value of their future investment.
 
Oh, no, no, no! Everyone KNOWS we need $500 screwdrivers and $1000 toilet seats

Those were legitimate costs. thats not the kind of waste we are talking about and its peanuts compared to whats out there.

The infamous $600 hammer was a prototype spark free hammer designed to be used in fuel cells. No one made it, no one had the correct composites. It was a one off engineering and design model. Any kind of prototype will be expensive...follow on models are much more affordable.

As I recall, the toilet seat was designed to be used on a non flushing toilet and required that it not spill out the toilets contents in zero gravity and manuevers.

Again...those are peanuts compared to how much money gets blown at the end of every year on fallout money. The billions annually awarded in R and D contracts for concepts which never get used. The conventions, seminars, management getaways...if people knew how much their heads would literally explode. Granted thats money that is being dumped into local economies...but it is still wasteful spending.
 
Communist are going to be running the world in the next few generations.

No they aren't.

Especially since China isn't communist anymore.
 
Even going by the likely inflated DoD estimates Chinese military spending is still lower as a percentage of GDP when compared to Russia, France, and the United Kingdom. The Russians are actually nearly at the point of the U.S. in that respect, though obviously the white Ruskies of the north aren't quite as frighteningly foreign-looking as the great yellow threat of the East.

:roll: the UK's Army is shrinking to the smallest it's been since the 19th Century; and no one gives a flying F about color.
 
And you know this. I would like to see the massive amount of links that you have to prove your point. There have to 100's of thousands of them to back up your claim.

in fact I do know this. When China builds a "highway" through a mountain in the middle of nowhere that is 16 lanes wide, and bent at the entrances with bomb traps, and is near no large population center except a tank division? that's not a highway for Farmer Xiao to drive his mule to the field - that's a tunnel to protect/hide a tank column. but it's just them building a road, so it's 'civilian infrastructure'. When China goes "mining for iron ore" in a place that has no iron ore, and we see them pouring 7,000 psi concrete burster slabs on top of the "mine"? That's not a mine, that's a bunker. But it's a mine so it goes under "mining" rather than military expenditures. and that's just two of the more obvious examples.
 
in fact I do know this. When China builds a "highway" through a mountain in the middle of nowhere that is 16 lanes wide, and bent at the entrances with bomb traps, and is near no large population center except a tank division? that's not a highway for Farmer Xiao to drive his mule to the field - that's a tunnel to protect/hide a tank column. but it's just them building a road, so it's 'civilian infrastructure'. When China goes "mining for iron ore" in a place that has no iron ore, and we see them pouring 7,000 psi concrete burster slabs on top of the "mine"? That's not a mine, that's a bunker. But it's a mine so it goes under "mining" rather than military expenditures. and that's just two of the more obvious examples.

Lord knows when we built our highway system, it didn't include any tunnels :roll:

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16 lane ones with bomb traps and blast doors in the middle of nowhere? regular tunnels for a road system are one thing - but just because the Chinese call it that doesn't make it that.
 
16 lane ones with bomb traps and blast doors in the middle of nowhere? regular tunnels for a road system are one thing - but just because the Chinese call it that doesn't make it that.

Yep. When we built the interstate system, much of it ran through the middle of nowhere. In fact, most infrastructure is built where there is no one because people prefer to live where the infrastructure already exists.

Will wonders ever cease?
 
Yep. When we built the interstate system, much of it ran through the middle of nowhere. In fact, most infrastructure is built where there is no one because people prefer to live where the infrastructure already exists.

Will wonders ever cease?

Crazily enough, many even follow railroad tracks. Gosh, I wonder if that's because there was an already existing right of way provided?
 
cpwill I am curious what you think about my previous point. I understand totally what you are saying about China being a bunch of sneaky no good bastards. Trust me, I am 100% with you on that one, but does that mean we got to overspend when we could save and get the same product?
 
Ok so we've taken a guess, as accurate as can be I'm sure, and I trust your source. We're still looking at a a difference of about 600 billion dollars, so what was the point of this topic besides to equate the left with the Chinese.

Except that Chinese military personnel are paid a fraction of what Americans are paid and domestic military procurement is much less expensive for the Chinese than for the U.S.
 
O... what was the point of this topic besides to equate the left with the Chinese.
Isn't that enough? How can you ask for more than that? It's vital information that all Americans need to know.
 
That tells me that they will spend less. The US is already outspending them 5 or 6 to one. So they are correct the US is spending to much.

Uh huh, and when their military is as big as ours, they spend lots of money for it too.
 
True as that may be, you are ignoring a good point made by me and others here, there is an incredible amount of waste and bad contracting in the military more than any politician will ever freely admit in fear of retribution and more than any Republican will ever care to think about because even though they question the government as a whole's motives and cost non-stop they dare not question the motives of the security and defense departments as they misinterpret that as unpatriotic.

Consider yourself unignored. The part about Republican is wrong, everyone knows about the waste, including Dems and they send themselves plenty of earmarks....I know this personally.
 
I have a question:

Let's say we cut our military spending in half. What impacts would you forsee re: China?

Do you think we only consider China in our defense spending? How powerful do you think they are anyway?
 
Yes, yes you should cut down on military spending. Cut down on the little things. Like that extra stock pile of missiles, or maybe cut out the uranium that is in the Abram's armour. Small things that wont affect the effectiveness of the US military.
 
Yes, yes you should cut down on military spending. Cut down on the little things. Like that extra stock pile of missiles, or maybe cut out the uranium that is in the Abram's armour. Small things that wont affect the effectiveness of the US military.

How do you know there is uranium in the armor of M-1's?
 
How do you know there is uranium in the armor of M-1's?

Armor plate

Because of its high density, depleted uranium can also be used in tank armor, sandwiched between sheets of steel armor plate. For instance, some late-production M1A1HA and M1A2 Abrams tanks built after 1998 have DU reinforcement as part of the armor plating in the front of the hull and the front of the turret, and there is a program to upgrade the rest (see Chobham armor).
Depleted uranium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

He obviously read it somewhere
 
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