Though the title of the attached article states that Obama wants $708 billion for war, that is not true. The $708 billion is the entire department of defense budget.
The budget for the department of defense for 2010 is approximately $533 billion. This figure covers salaries, training, and health care of uniformed and civilian personnel, maintains arms, equipment and facilities, funds operations, and develops and buys new equipment. The budget funds all branches of the U.S. military: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
In addition to the defense budget, the "overseas contingency operations" budget for 2010 was about $146 billion.
And now, Obama is asking for an additional $33 billion for the wars.
Not to be all condescending, but I thought liberals wanted to pull chocks on the Middle East?
I am NOT implying that I think spending money on a war is futile. I'd MUCH rather spend money on war than national healthcare, government bailouts and whatever other asinine things Obama spent my taxes on in 2009.
I do, however, have concerns about the continuously increasing government spending. My understanding is that our spending is solely funded by our taxes. In personal finances, if your spending exceeds your income, you need to increase your income or decrease your spending. The US Govt is obviously not decreasing their spending, so apparently they are going to need to raise our taxes.
In addition to my thoughts on increased spending, I am confused by Obama's choice to increase spending on the wars. Again, I am not saying the money isn't needed, I am just trying to understand how he expects to improve his approval rating by continuing to make choices that the majority of Americans do not agree with.
Considering that the Democratic Majority is on the line right now with the late Ted Kennedy's seat, you would think that Obama would be trying to please Americans rather than continue in his "I'm the Messiah and I'll do as I damn please" mentality...
I'm sorry if you, my loving devoted reader, are confused as to why I am debating the spending of money on war when I actually agree with spending on war. I apologize if I am not able to clearly articulate my thoughts. I saw the headline this morning and immediately thought, "Huh. That's weird. I thought Obama was supposed to end the war."
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