The hybrid-Prius-driving liberal loonies with the “It will
be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the air force
has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber” bumper stickers are close to getting
their wish. (A bumper sticker one would never see in Russia, Iran, China, North
Korea, etc., by-the-way).
According
to DefenseNews.com, almost two-thirds of
the U.S. Navy’s strike fighters are unusable because there isn’t enough money
to repair them. President Obama inflicted severe damage on his navy, air force,
army and marines by implementing massive cuts to the budget of the military as
a whole. The navy doesn’t have the money to fix its ships, either. Maintenance
of some ships has been deferred- or cancelled outright. A number of the Navy’s
submarines have been out of service for years. One sub, the Boise, forfeited
its diving certification because it was out of commission for so long.
Officials say that another five submarines could lose their certification soon,
if more money doesn’t become available. The other service branches, including
the Coast Guard, are also in dire need of bigger budgets if they are to be able
to effectively carry out their duties.
Governments
are formed in large part to protect their citizens. That is the single most
important function with which they are charged. If they fail in this obligation, no other mission
matters. U.S. politicians used to know this, but now too many believe the
single most important function they have is to keep themselves in power by
bribing the large segment of the citizenry…and non-citizenry…whose morals have
atrophied to the point that they believe they are limitlessly entitled to the
fruits of other’s labor.
In the
U.S., defense spending as a percentage of GNP has plummeted over the years
(Obama cut long-term spending on defense programs by almost $1 trillion dollars in fiscal years 2009 to
2023) while entitlement spending by the same measure has skyrocketed.
Similarly, spending on education has soared in recent years, even as
educational performance, by various measures, has sharply declined. The United
States spent over two and a half trillion dollars on ‘entitlement’
programs in 2016. It spent well over $650 billion on education last year,
though the real figure is hard to calculate- and certainly much, much higher
than that- due to the difficulty of tabulating expenses across the federal,
state and local level. And this doesn’t even include the staggering sums of
cash schools coerce their student’s family, friends and neighbors into spending
on donations, bake sales, chocolate and candy, flowers, fees to attend school
functions, etc., etc., etc. That $650 billion education figure alone is tens of billions of dollars more than
the country spent for national defense in 2016, but two and a half trillion
dollars?!
I know
a certain amount of the money I pay in taxes goes to the defense budget…and I’m
fine with that. But I pay more than that for our schools and education. (And,
obviously, for “entitlements”). Moreover, the schools ask for new spending
almost every year. Rarely an election goes by without another bleeping
school-spending referendum. Add up the levees, money spent on musical
equipment, band trips, field trips, sports equipment, the cost of attending
games, concerts, plays, lunch money, property taxes given over to the local
school district, etc., etc., ad infinitem, and the amount we pay for education
is truly staggering.
And our
kids knew more…much more… at least of what’s actually important, such as systems
of government and Western thought, back when many were educated in one-room school
houses. If you don’t believe me, take an (online, as everything is nowadays) 8th
or 10th grade test from the mid or late 1800's. Good luck.
The
United States has been out of service for over eight years now, so it mirrors
the condition of its dilapidated military. Its morals and reason have sat,
rotting and ignored, for far too long.
The
Trump administration appears willing to make a concerted effort to bring the
country- and its military- back to life. If gypsies, tramps and thieves stymie
it in its mission, and insist that their self-proclaimed ‘freak flags’ fly
higher than Old Glory, it’s curtains for the shining city on a hill.
And
lights out for the rest of the world as well.
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