Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
Ken, the U.S. Department of Energy's Budget is more about nukes and nuke disposal than about energy. There are significant hidden budgets outside of the DoD budget. Those hidden positions exceed the total military expenditures of several NATO allies.
and the fact that a lot of social welfare and support spending is in the DoD budget, contributes little or nothing to defense, really and which effectively offsets many of the other agency budget items.
Changing the fiscal transfer network won't change much, for it's not relevant in the short or medium term whether the money flows through a federal account or not.
Strange statement. Both the deficit and the bogus, so-called 'entitlements' are a long term problem.

Plus the defense budget is almost totally Federal, the States providing only a small amount for the National Guard. The distortion factor is an issue.
...Wash DC could cut a couple programs and keep its income for balancing its budget, but the states would need to compensate for that or else the economic and social effects could be devastating.
Er, did you miss this I wrote above:"...Just redistributing tax intakes to more accurately reflect governmental level responsibilities would save billions." I didn't suggest cutting any social programs, I just think they do not belong to the Federal government and any sensible interpretation of the US Constitution supports me on that.
A modern Western nation is a complex behemoth. Cutting away parts can cause a total collapse, especially when the balance was already lost after a false step.
I didn't suggest cutting much of anything. What I did suggest was reworking the processes to eliminate federal intrusion in State and local business.
Social peace and funding for school education cannot easily be given up in order to balance a federal budget.
Didn't suggest that, either -- where do you get these ideas???

Your use of the Krupp-Bismarkian 'social peace' is interesting. We -- all nations -- had that before Otto jumped on Alfred's 'social peace' idea. Otto jumped on it to get not social peace but a complaisant citizenry. My personal belief is that was a poor bargain.
A few aircraft carrier, the F-35 project, CVN-21 and a few other CVs, Arleigh Burke flight IV and several army & marines formations could disappear and hardly any suburb or downtown would notice the loss.
Wouldn't hurt our capability that much so I could live with all that -- except the F-35; several reasons that needs to stay, not least to keep the Taifun and Gripen lines from getting too big.

Nor would said suburbs or downtown accrue much benefit. I truly do not believe you realize how venal our Congress really happens to be...
You could call it demobilization. The Cold War is over, after all - and South Korea is more than capable enough to handle North Korea on its own.
You could call it that. The Left around the world would applaud. The Left here would applaud. I say it would be abysmally stupid and would invite even more subtle little attacks than the US currently receives -- and I'm not talking the small amount of overt stuff, I'm talking about the under visibility level sniping, cuts and little debilitating action that many, including some alleged friends, engage in.

The"cold" war continues, just different plays and players. We suffer the penalty of being the big guy everyone loves to hate.

Cheer up; China and India will not be denied, mayhap before you die, they'll eclipse us. But I doubt it...