To Hear Them Talk, You'd Think We're Too Puny.

       Have ya heard the outcry over the  Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel's proposed defense budget? We're throwing ourselves on the mercy of all the evil that has ever existed in the universe. Actually we'd go from a military that costs as much as the next 13 countries combined, to a cheapskate military equal only to the next ten countries combined.
       We're just coming out of a military fighting two wars at the same time while attending to numerous small brushfires. For the first time in a decade we only have one war going on and we're trying to extricate ourselves from that one. But the thinking seems to be that we need the same military to fight no wars. If we're gonna do that then shouldn't we require that all American corporations do the same? Full employment. Let the corporations pay employees to sit in waiting for the next big economic expansion.
       Now I realize there's more at stake with the military than any single corporation, but I have to wonder how we can afford to keep a 590,000 man army and all those extra ships and planes and on and on? America just doesn't have the same income we had a decade ago. Washington can't raise taxes and it has less income. Something has to go. Of course entitlements is the answer. Except that it isn't an answer at all.
       Think about it. If you're dependent on help to survive because you can't find a job for which you have the skills or training and are therefore forced to work at minimum wage, how in the world will you feed and house your family? You want to stop the safety net programs? Create the jobs first. Then you won't have a problem eliminating the safety net. Until then we need a smaller more mobile defense. One we can afford. That shouldn't be a problem with all the heavily armed Americans we have.