Intentionally Vague

Paul Krugman has a terrific op/ed that asks a very basic question.

Conservatives always whine about federal spending, but rarely understand the actual numbers, and never express a specific plan. It's all banal generalities, because their entire ideology is simply banal generalities.

Consider the actual record of spending. Never mind dollar figures, which grow because of inflation, population growth, and other normal factors. A better guide is spending as a percentage of GDP. And this has increased, from 18.5% in fiscal 2001 to 20% in fiscal 2007.

So.. the question is, where do you want government to "cut spending"?

But where did that increase come from? Three words: defense, Medicare, Medicaid. That’s the whole story. Defense up from 3 to 4% of GDP; Medicare and Medicaid up from 3.4% to 4.6%, partially offset by increased payments for Part B and stuff. Aside from that, there’s been no major movement.

Behind these increases are the obvious things: the war McCain wants to fight for the next century, the general issue of excess cost growth in health care, and the prescription drug benefit.

So the next time Mr. McCain or anyone else promises to rein in runaway spending, they should be asked which of these things they intend to reverse. Are they talking about pulling out of Iraq? Denying seniors the latest medical treatments? Canceling the drug benefit? If not, what are they talking about?

So.. which is it Doug? End the war? "Defund" the military? Throw old people to the curb?

And how much defense spending is enough? We already spend more money on the military than every other country.... combined. Is even more dollars the right thing to do? Why don't we turn the entire country into military junta?

Try and cut any funding for the military, and uniformed people will flip out. It's political suicide. Americans demand that our military matches what we see in the movies, and that's expensive. Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that there are limits to what even the most expensive military in the history of the world can achieve.

Here's an idea. How about we conquer the world economically and socially? If we quit wasting all this money, we can easily economically dominate - where Americans actually start buying up large chunks of foreign business and real-estate, instead of the other way around.. and use technology to win a propaganda war. After all, the best way to change a backward society is not to kill them, but to convince them that our way is better by example.

So.. conservative loons. What specifically needs to be cut in federal spending?