Overlooked today in the aftermath of the news of President Obama stating that he thinks gays should be allowed to marry are the results of some unique surveys that show a majority of us think that our Defense budget should be deeply slashed.
As of 2011, the United States military spending was $711,000,000,000 dollars. That’s nine zeros for those of us who have trouble with small print. It represents nearly 5% of our total Gross Domestic product. It’s nearly six times what China spends, and ten time what Russia spend.
In fact, the $711 Billion dollars we spend on our military is more than the next 14 countries on the list.
Each one of us contributes $2,141 dollars to our military spending. It makes you wonder why our tax bill is so high, and what we could be doing with that money if we weren’t involved in so many places around the world where we are not wanted and should not be.
I’m not so naive to believe that we should have no military. However, I think that we could take at least half that money and reinvest it into our own country.
All over this land we have crumbling infrastructure. Bridges that need repairs, dams that need maintenance, state and federal parks being closed for lack of funding.
Sadly, much of this money is borrowed money, which makes it even worse. It’s like having to fork over $2 instead of $1.
While I congratulate President Obama for standing up and shrugging off the fear of committing to a belief in treating all human beings fairly, I would like to point out that allowing gays to get married is only a very small, and relatively insignificant part of what is wrong in America.
I agree completely. JB