Americans Are More Left Wing Than You Thought

US military readiness? In terms of what? Technological advantage? Ability to deploy? I don't know what you mean!
And you're right it would put people out of work. And guess what? The government could put them right back into work in a more constructive field by investing in infrastructure and America's future instead. Construction over destruction IMO.

Both, right now we just have some rouge nations to deal with but in the coming decades China will be the main threat the West has to deal with. And argueing that we take all the people who build the large technical machines and pay them to pave roads is ridiculous for three reasons. one, nobody is going to go from building tanks to roads, they aren't the same skill set and your flushing years of engineering down the toilet. two, that sharp drop in income will shrink the GDP as people make less they spend less and are taxed less. And three, um er ummmmmmm I'm going to go with EPA, oops.

And your social serurity argument seems to support mine as we are apparently going to go in the red in 14 years.

I think he may be confusing infrastructure with commercial manufacturing industry. Just a guess.

Rick Perry ;-). Things like building bridges would require engineering skill. And I don't see how China and 'rogue nations' are a threat. China's being China and producing shit cheaply and 'rogue nations' are typically half the world away and unlikely to be a threat. Until Mexico is threatening the destruction of the US I think it can chill out. "people make less they spend less and are taxed less" well redistribute some of the wealth from the unfairly low taxed rich to those who aren't earning much. That way money is being used rather than being tucked away into investments and savings accounts in the Cayman Islands.

There are differences between a military and a civil engineer (you are aware of this right?) Even so only about 77,000 bridges are in need of repair and your suggesting that we lay-off hundreds of thousands of workers. This is not a good idea normally but you would have to be daft to do it in a recession.

Not in the immediate future but this would drastically reduce our military effectiveness for decades to come. China is an emerging superpower and we should be prepared to deal with any potential future conflicts. Start thinking toward the future.

Why not just reform the tax code, the current income tax code is fundamentally unfair and too complex. It's riddled with loopholes and special breaks. It drives up health care costs and creates perverse economic incentives for companies and individuals. Here's a way to make it simpler, fairer and raise tens of billions for deficit reduction. The changes include lowering both corporate and individual tax rates, eliminating some loopholes and tax breaks, and moving to a territorial taxation system for corporate taxes. If you calculate the fiscal impact of this based on current law, which would let all of the Bush era tax cuts expire in 2012, this proposal would reduce revenue for the federal government. The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform and the Gang of Six have calculated the fiscal impact based on the idea that the Bush era tax cuts will be extended for all but those who earn more than $250,000, in which case this would generate billions of dollars in revenue. So what will happen to individual taxes? According to the Tax Policy Center, this change will affect taxes the same way changes to the tax code always do: some people's taxes will go up, some will go down and some will stay about the same.

Simply money funneling amounts to a veritable Christmas tree of corporate givebacks and tax cuts for the rich -- at a time when the middle class is facing increasing strain. You'd be better off scrapping the entire tax code and starting over

It's sad cutting jobs but this is such a bloated sector that it really ought to be cut. Other sectors should be invested in instead. Although you're probably right in that those in the defence sector wouldn't have the right skill sets, well... yeah. I'm afraid they'll have to adapt and retrain.

So reducing from 5 times the next largest spender to 4 times would really cripple the US' defensive capabilities? I don't think so.

On taxes

Corporation taxes do not need to be cut. Instead redistribute the wealth from the richest to those who need it most and therefore most likely to spend it. And the problem with your health care costs is that you don't have universal health care and have a much too powerful pharmaceutical industry.

If you implemented the tax reform I suggested military cuts would be no longer needed.

You would be surprised, as I said your cutting with a meat ax and not looking toward the future
On taxes

Now I know you didn't read the whole thing because I did mention eliminating most tax loopholes. According to the Bowles-Simpson Commission and the Gang of Six this would amount to a 955 Billion increase in federal income. Simply money funneling like you suggest gets us nowhere.

Just think of what good could come out of using 1/5 of the military spending for social projects, science, infrastructure, public transportation etc. I think it should be cut even with a balanced budget. At the very least military spending should not match inflation, cutting it slowly in real terms.

I did actually but I think the tax system doesn't need to be revolutionised in order to function correctly, especially considering how few countries use territorial taxes. I also don't like the idea of people not being taxed because they are operating out of a foreign business or profiting from a foreign source. If I'm correct that makes me think of a Hong Kong resident, investing in US companies, profiting, and then not paying tax. So they could effectively never pay income tax if they're earning from foreign sources. Yet they still get to use the services in Hong Kong. Correct? If so I'm not keen on it.

It does really depend on what is being cut, us getting out of Iraq and Afghanistan will greatly reduce the military budget in and of itself

It really does, right now there are so many loopholes and exemptions that people and corporations are getting out of paying a large chuck of their taxes.

http://www.nftc.org/default/Tax Policy/06_13_02_Territorial_Tax_Study_Report.pdf.pdf

I don't think you quite understand the benifits of a territorial tax system.

Chomsky says the majority of Americans are social democrats.