First, how about we also dismantle HUD, DOE, ninety percent of the FDA, the CPSIA, and the IRS. Then, lets means test social security on top of a two percent roll back. We can follow that with the sale of about a billion acres of land. (I want that parcel atop the pictured rocks.)
I would also say a few things concerning your bullet point on the military budget.
First of all, too much of what is spent on the military is spent to appease legislators who cannot fathom the closing of a local base or the shuttering of a local factory dedicated to building obsolete or unnecessary weapons systems. As such these military expenditures differ very little from the bike paths and museums we see dedicated to (and earmarked by) benevolent overlords except that they are hugely more expensive than any museum ever envisioned by Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton.
Secondly our civilian government must be willfully cognizant of what can be accomplished militarily versus what our politicians hope can be achieved if only more forces are thrown at the problem. Some goals are not reasonable (nation building in Afghanistan,) some goals do nothing to serve our national interests (police action in the Balkans) and some goals are simply misallocations of resources (the Dept of Homeland Security investigating the effects of climate change--way to go Napolitano!)
So, ya, there are untold billions that could be saved in the nation's military and either reallocated to more pressing needs or returned to pay down the debt. Cutting it in half is not reasonable--maybe a few percent is possible and this would still amount to billions.
Having said all of that, the libertarian tack on the military is, I believe, not applicable to today's real world. I wish it was. You say cut the military in half...many libertarians would agree while others would say cut it even farther.
Then again, in an echo chamber where even a response to Pearl Harbor is often considered an overreaction, I find it difficult to believe that following libertarian mores would grant us the judgment necessary to effectively respond to any legitimate threat before it had sneaked across our borders dressed in fluorescent orange and planted a bayonet in our collective ass.
By then it will be too late.
One thing I will say Crippy is that you are a congenial debater and that is appreciated. I know my blatherings aren't going to sway your beliefs, but I do appreciate getting in a word with you once in a while.
While I believe you to be full of crap about 30 percent of the time, I know full well my crap ratio is no less than two in five. We're both still a lot smarter than that dipstick Gary Peters.
