Where would you like your tax dollars to go?

[Mister Agenda]

Cut military spending until it's only equal to the next four countries combined. Use half the savings to pay down debt. Use the other half for sensible results-based programs. A fiscal conservative should consider that a win-win.

In round numbers that would be about a 50% cut in defense spending. 50% of the defense budget wouldn't make the annual interest payments on the federal debt much less start paying it down.

I question that 130 billion (around 25% of the total military budget) a year combined with current payments (around 400 billion) would not begin to pay down the debt. That's like saying that if I'm meeting the minimum payment on my debts and increased what I'm paying by 35%, I wouldn't get out of debt sooner, or at least go into debt slower, depending on the terms. The debt has been growing (nearly 20 trillion dollars now) because of course we've been borrowing more than we've been repaying, not unusual in a recession (or a war followed by a recession). Paying more than the minimum without increasing borrowing will reduce it.

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It would be lovely if charities could cover the needs of Americans so adequately that government intervention to help people was completely unnecessary. But if they're clearly not doing it. They could make the programs completely redundant and we'd have to cut them because they'd become pointless. Even if just the Christian majority contributed only, say, an additional 10% of their income to helping the needy, they ought to be able to generate over a trillion dollars a year for the task, about what the government spends on social programs. I'd be happy to join that initiative if it got going. It would do more to reduce the scope and reach of government than any elected official could and all I care about on the matter is that people get what they need.

But I'm not going to hold my breath, and in the meantime, disadvantaged people still need help. If the people on team Jesus in this country really heeded the NT admonishments to help the poor (a duty not covered by their tithes), a welfare state wouldn't have been needed in majority Christian countries in the first place. Christians complaining about government spending too much on poor people has a certain irony considering they would be making it unnecessary in the first place if they were interested in authentically following their own teachings.

I'm grateful to the Christians who do actually walk the walk when it comes to helping the poor; and anyone else who does the same thing. It would be nice if there were more people like them. Since there aren't, we need government programs.