Where would you like your tax dollars to go?

[popeyespappy]

The problem with what you're saying is reducing spending by $130 billion doesn't balance the budget. Annual spending will still be more than annual revenue. We are still going to be borrowing, and the debt will continue to rise until we stop borrowing. Completely zeroing out defense spending wouldn't balance the budget.  



Zeroing out the defense budget would have negative effects as well. Not the least of which is 6 million more people (about 5% of the workforce) would suddenly become unemployed. That would double the unemployment rate, and probably send us into another depression. That would reduce revenue and make it even harder to balance the budget.

Don't get me wrong. I think we should reduce spending starting with defense. I think we should increase tax revenue starting with raising social security and medicare taxes. We need to get to the point where we can start paying down the debt. Getting there without crashing the economy is going to be the equivalent of juggling chainsaws and flaming cats while riding a unicycle across a loose tightrope in gale force winds. It ain't going to be easy.

I feel kind of bad about not claiming it would balance the budget, considering all the work you're putting into refuting that claim.

A: Hey, I'm paying $100 a month on this card, but I need to be paying $150 just to not go farther in debt. I found something in my budget to cut that will let me pay $125 a month.

B: No, don't do that! Your budget still won't be balanced!

Your original claim, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here, was that cutting defense spending by half then using half of that to pay down the debt would reduce the debt. That would reduce the rate of growth of the debt, but it wouldn't reduce the debt. Eliminating defense spending altogether is not enough to reduce the debt.

BTW, the last time the federal debt decreased from one year to next was 1957 and Eisenhower was president.