U.S. Spending Allocations

Bro, my issue with the Republicans is they always knock the Democrats for excessive spending but the facts clearly show that our national debt rises with Republicans. Who knows what it will do under Obama but judging from the mess he inherited, let's just hope it doesn't get worse. I'm not saying he is the "be all, cure all", I'm just saying I like where it is headed. Remember, the auto and banking bail outs were on Bush, not Obama, even if Obama now takes credit for them. If they ever begin to take a turn for the worse, you watch Obama begin to remind everyone that Bush was the one who did it though.

I have no problem supporting responsible military spending. I want to support my vets and current service men and women. But let's look at the data. 44.4% of all taxes go directly to military spending while only 2.2% is invested into the education of the leaders of tomorrow. Even as a die hard red blooded American Marine do you not have issue with spending nearly half of all the collected taxes to fund our military?

Even if you added up all of the collective military spending for every country in Europe, we still spent 28% more than them. Russia, our communist enemies? We spend 10 times what they do on military. Communist China? We spend 6 times more than they do.

If you added up what every country in the world spent on military (except for the United States), they collectively only spent $51 billion dollars more than the United States did.

I'm just asking this: To maintain our dominant status as top dog, do we have to outspend every one by such a large margin? Can we not invest more into education and science?

What I'm really calling for is that our elected officials be more fiscally responsible with the excessively high tax rates we pay. Military spending, in the light of the leadership errors in Iraq, the Cheney inspired Halliburton monopoly and the expensive mercenary branch of the U.S. military (Blackwater or Xe or whatever they change to next), and the 44.4% allotment...it seems the most high profile target. But I'm not just picking on military expenditures.

NASA, for instance. In this time of economic downturn, I find it highly illogical to be spending nearly $80 million in tax payer funding to send a missile into the moon hoping to find evidence of lunar water in the debris. Not only that but let's take some Ron Paul advice on shrinking the unnecessary weight out of our federal government...


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U.S. Military Spending vs The Rest of the World


Allocation of our U.S. Tax Dollars - Pie Chart


The Raw Data

Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas to my brother, Matthew Shelby

This goes out to my brother Matt serving in the Marine Corps away from his family on his birthday and Christmas in the Middle East. We love you, we're proud of you, and we want you to come home safe.

My brother loves Larry the Cable Guy. Here are some redneck Christmas carols...


This one goes out to my brother and all our men and women in the service:


My brother has a border-line unhealthy love affair with Garth Brooks. Here are a few Christmas offerings from Garth.
Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy:


Baby Jesus is Born:


My brother has been a San Francisco 49ers fan since birth. Now since Matt has been alive, the 49ers have a record of 272-183-1 (2008 stats excluded) and have won 5 Super Bowls. We still have a healthy debate and rivalry between my Dallas Cowboys (also 5 Super Bowls). During Matt's life, the two teams have only faced 4 times in the playoffs, with each team winning twice. Whoever has won the matchup has gone on to win the Super Bowl that year. Joining the Marine Corps hasn't been good for Matt's status as a 49er fan. Since joining the Marines, the 49ers are 18-46 (2008 not included).

Here is a Frosty the Snowman rendition from current 49ers:


Since his high school days trying his best to look like Kurt Cobain, my brother has loved Nirvana. Here is a Christmas message from Nirvana.


And I am throwing this one in just to make my mom cry:


Are they having fun out there? Let a Marine explain how fun it is: