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From: medin@nike.uucp (Milo S. Medin)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Re: Re: SDI again
Message-ID: <603@nike.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 14-Sep-86 20:36:44 EDT
Article-I.D.: nike.603
Posted: Sun Sep 14 20:36:44 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Sep-86 05:29:53 EDT
References: <973@drutx.UUCP> <480@aurora.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@nike.UUCP
Reply-To: medin@orion.UUCP (Milo S. Medin)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 39

In article <480@aurora.UUCP> al@aurora.UUCP (Al Globus) writes:

>...
>May I remind you that the US government is $2 trillion (yes, TRILLION)
>in debt and sinking at $200 billion a year?  That our trade deficit is
>about $18 billion a month?  My friend, the USSR may or may not be able
>to afford their military but we are obviously unable to afford ours.  It
>looks to me as if the superpowers are headed into big economic trouble
>while Japan - with a small defense burden - is laughing all the way to
>the bank.
>
>The struggle with the USSR will not be won on the battleground.  It will
>be won by computers, communication satellites and the fact that democracy,
>for all its many flaws, is better than communism.  However, we can lose.  The
>way to lose is to waste our strength on weapon systems that will never
>be used.

Al, I believe we could spend an awful lot more if we were willing
to give up some of the spending going to less important parts of
the economy, and do it with relative ease.  We used to spend 50%
of the budget on defense routinely...

The real point is a little different.  Defense spending is different
from other types of government spending.  W.F. Buckley once said
that you spend whatever is needed on defense, not what you could
afford, since if you were skimpy in this area, all your other funded
programs would be rendered useless in the case of a major war.  
Surely if security could be guaranteed, the American public would
be willing to spend trillions on defense.  Granted, security
is hard to guarantee, but the point remains the same.  US national
security is the highest priority item in the budget.  

					Milo Medin
					NASA Ames Research Center
					Moffett Field, CA

PS All the usual disclaimers about this being my personal opinion,
and not necessarily the opinion of the US Government, its contractors,
or any other entity other than myself apply...