I know, I've seen that graph before. I just can't wrap my mind around it. But assuming that information is correct, I guess I can't argue with it.

See this link. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8...

This is really what I have an issue with. If I'm understanding this graph and information correctly, more than 1/2 of our federal budget goes toward Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and servicing of the debt. From this information you can see that Defense spending was only 4% of the GDP for 2007.

Now, if this is so, then I see that our real problem is social spending. If we either removed or drastically reduced social spending, then by defualt we would have a huge excess in our federal budget. If we could remove or eliminate Medicare and Medicaid, then the Federal Govt. wouldn't feel the need to "borrow" against social security. SS would be fully funded and the federal govt. would still have an excess.

Why do so many people want to have "free universal healthcare"? Can't they see that it is not at all free? It will cost an absolute fortune to fund it. It will drive this country further in debt. Our money isn't worth squat as it is compared to where it used to be. We will never, ever get this country back on track financially if we do not reduce mandetory social spending programs that we can not afford.

Be very clear on this as I know that this is an emotional issue for many people. It's not that I don't care about people, but the numbers don't lie. We are already going down the tubes due to mandetory social spending. We can not maintain this level of spending, period! That's just the facts. Compared to social spending, defense is only a small percentage of the total budget. You can not gut the military enough to offset the Govt. taking care of everyone. People need to start taking care of themselves.

Sorry, didn't meant to get on a tirade there.

- 67GTO