Gates cutting Pentagon budget by $78bn over five years

The cuts over the next five years come in addition to $100bn in internal savings already announced.
Those savings will be redirected to other defense programs, but the new cuts slow growth in the overall budget.

A Small victory for those like me, who wish America had a balanced budget, but the war is still far from over.

A total of $1,134,012,650,000 Spent on the combined wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has been spent since 2001, my Home state of Michigan having footed 30 million of that bill.

As a country that is in the midst of economic stagnation, 9.3 percent unemployment, and Record corporate profits, we have to as ourselves Why in the hell are we spending 1.3 trillion dollars of our money on wars that we've started for (in the case of Iraq) reasons that just weren't verifiable. Are our politicians just Stupid? To the general population they may seem so, but Everytime i hear a story about our stupid politicians, i think of rule 3 in The 48 laws of power.

Keep people off-balance and in the dark by never revealing the purpose behind your actions.  If they have no clue what you are up to, they cannot prepare a defense.  Guide them far enough down the wrong path, envelope them in enough smoke, and by the time they realize your intentions, it will be too late.

Americans are fed news through private enterprises, with private agendas. Agendas that nobody wants to see, because normally they don't care. This isn't going to change anytime soon for most of the ragged masses that are struggling to pull themselves out of the crater the last financial crisis left them in. I don't see a bailout for the working class underway. Because this economic system wasn't designed to benefit us. It was designed to benefit those with money, and power. These people are determined to keep that money and power. So they enact tax cuts, during a time of RECORD CORPORATE PROFITS, claiming that these cuts will enable the rich to hire more working  Americans.  The Only problem with that is THEY AREN'T HIRING ANYONE. You know why that is? Businesses operate on Supply and DEMAND. Nobody has money to buy products like they did in july of 2008. This in turn lowers demand, which means layoffs.

In a country where industrialization is leaving our shores at a startling pace for much cheaper labor, i ask myself, why would the rich abandon hard working American people? Because the only ethical thing to do BY LAW IN THE USA, is to seek profits over everything else. But hey, they arent to blame. Its human nature to be greedy selfish bastards, right?

Wake up People. Its only going to get worse.