Dezaad
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 7, 2005
- Messages
- 5,057
- Reaction score
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- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Very Liberal
Well, I've already made it very clear elsewhere that it is my belief that if we are having budget problems (which we are), then we need to look at where our budget is completely 'out of whack'. When you look at our budget, the single thing that stands out as being completely different than the rest of the entire planet of nations is our military spending. We used to be able to afford this. When we could, I was in complete support of doing so, and I believe it has had, overall, a beneficial effect. It is less necessary, now, and the situation is more impossible.Reasonable points. But from my perspective they are missing the bigger picture of the standoff we are in regarding our ongoing federal spending habits/disaster.
There are those defending spending on the smaller non-life impacting luxury items like PBS/NPR. Saying it is insignificant to the to the bigger impact of tackling the entitlements. (which certainly is mathematically accurate)
But as soon as proposals for cuts to the Social Security and Medicare entitlements enter the equation, we can rest assured that there will be screams about federal funding to PBS/NPR and any other federal programs that are much lower priorities.
Believe most agree that Federal spending is out of control and unsustainable. This isn't about love/hate of public broadcasting. It is about first establishing priorities and then working our way down through all spending.
There are a lot of federal expenditures that are not a priority. Funding PBS is not high on the priority list.
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The rest of the free world is going to have to accept more responsibility for it's own well being, and they should. One effect that our strength has had is that it has subsidized many other prosperous nation's budgets. They will have to come up with the money, now, and the blood.
Significant Cutting anywhere else will send us into a slow domestic decline that will ultimately force military cuts in any event. This is because we will be less prosperous, and thereby even less able to afford our bloated military.
So, when you say that those opposed to you are not willing to make tough choices, perhaps that is true. But I am. I am sure that these are not the cuts that you would make. I also imagine that you believe that such cuts will bring about the end of the world, but I'll let you speak for yourself. Finally, if the idea of cutting the military budget gains traction, I would imagine that we will be in for a very bitter fight. One that makes the last 20 years look like a walk in the park.
So, it is about priorities. I believe that public broadcasting is a priority, but more significantly, I believe that other larger domestic spending items are also a priority. I do concede that many of my fellow liberals, and many centrists, have not yet faced truly setting their priorities. They will have to do so soon.