Fwd: National Debt and defecits

FYI.

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From: John Coffey <john2001plus@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 10, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Subject: re: National Debt and defecits
To: Grant 

The budget had a surplus under Clinton due to the dot-com bubble.  It was very short-lived.  As soon as that bubble burst, we went back to deficits.

I don't believe our huge national debt started with the Iraq war.  It has been an ongoing process due to overall spending.

In hindsight, invading Iraq might have been a mistake, or maybe not.  Although we did not find WMDs, a couple of things were reported at the time.  First, people were caught trying to smuggle enriched uranium into Iraq, although not near enough to make a bomb.  Second, just before the invasion, it was reported that Iraq sent trucks full of stuff to Syria.  Many think that this might have WMD research.  Our troops also found an abandoned nuclear lab.

It was good to topple a dictator, although my position would have been that this wasn't necessarily in our national interest.  However, Iraq reportedly had a terrorist training camp and was reportedly harboring at least one terrorist.  The Bush Doctrine said that we would not make a distinction between the terrorists and the nations that harbor them.

So, it is a complicated issue.

We live in such a dangerous time that it might be necessary to maintain a strong military.  If we don't do it, someone else will.  Our enemies could form a coalition against us.

However, I would prefer that the federal government spend less on the military and just about everything else.

I think that DOGE has made minor progress, but there is more to come.  This has great potential.  I believe that the federal government is inherently corrupt, with individuals and groups profiting from it.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

On Thu, Apr 10, 2025 at 12:07 AM Grant wrote:

My broker for some time has reminded me of these numbers and suggested we need to cut Social Security, but we have paid into the system for many years, and so it's really our money being returned.  I agree we need to drastically reduce military spending and increase taxes, but that's a hard sell.  Having worked in propulsion on all our ballistic missiles, land based missiles are essentially a free deterrent, since we already have the arsenal in place. The other two legs of the nuclear triad, submarines and bombers are likewise effective but more costly.  The point is that we could drastically reduce our military without jeopardizing our safety.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard we spend as much on our military as the rest of the world combined.  That may be why Trump hasn't worked for a cooperative coalition and appears to be ignoring NATO.  Similarly, years ago under George W Bush, we didn't need UN approval to unilaterally attack Iraq, because no one was in a position to stop us from militarily doing as we pleased, which started our huge national debt.  [The budget had been balanced under Bill Clinton, and no I'm not a democrat.]