I can imagine the high tech stuff are more expensive today. People are paid more. Plus, hope they are spending money on the new Space Force because China is the biggest threat there. There might be some corruption that still needs to be cleaned up. Just things i can think of for now...

When you get to the core of the issue, the military is one of the only things the federal government should be spending money on.

With that said, it costs a lot of money to continuously maintain and upgrade our skills and equipment. An F-15 may cost 33 million new, but you have at least that amount of money, if not more, into its upkeep, fuel and armaments during its operational life time. Multiply that number by how many fighters, cargo planes, helicopters and so on and you start to see the bigger picture.

Then there is the issue of operational readiness. If a commander of a combat unit (infantry, tanks, aircraft, whatever) doesn't have at least 80%+ operational readiness (and this may have changed since I was in) then that commander is toast. Operational readiness demands the highest quality, well maintained vehicles, aircraft, facilities, and personnel. And it's not cheap. Look at virtually any other military in the world - most of their military equipment is broke ass crap. And if it's not, that's because they bought it from the U.S.

To sum up, it takes a staggering amount of money to maintain what we currently have and to develop the technologies needed in the future.

Wow, I guess you read and believe fake news.

China?

During WW2, we were keeping the Axis Powers in check. Now, we're keeping EVERYBODY in check. It's good for world geopolitical stability to have ONE superpower. Whether that superpower is benevolent or evil, everybody is better off with a top dawg. I prefer it to be us.

I'm glad this post got some serious replies about the military aspect, and as for your worries about the medical side of things - working towards deportations and abolishing sanctuary cities while dismantling DACA and limiting future immigration should help with costs. Not to mention forcing the disclosure of the costs negotiated by hospitals with providers and patients as they have their bottom line cost that is often subsidized by overcharging and over diagnosing (plus over testing) elderpedes unnecessarily..

We still have RINOs pushing visa loopholes for India and China, and Trump is the sort of President that will triage and make the deals he can to keep this movements momentum going. If Trump was 0bama'ing it up right now and loafing around smoking and golfing, we'd be watching him do nothing other than defend his Israel embassy move and Syrian war-zone immigration restrictions.

Trump isn't a passive president, and neither are the people he has around him incompetent - I agree with a lot of the hardcore anti-zionist Trump critics that he's had some terrible staffers around him, but like Trump, those shit heels were totalling willing to engage in political triage themselves to forward their own agendas.

At the end of the day I trust Trump is working towards measurable progress, but not always political progress which is solely based on the perception of achievement and clout. I much prefer a working president to a lying one that I think is working on my behalf, and I must say that resistance to SALT tax changes amongst blue state pedes is similar to your fears over rising medical costs - in the end you'll be better off and freer with a high likelihood of charitable Americans helping you out of their own volition if some shakeup truly does occur.

No American is going to die or starve at home because of Trump's interventions with the military and economy, both of which are tied into your costs of medical care and the quality of it - as Trump is proving everyday that Main Street trumps Wall Street. Which proves your needs and the defense of the nation are inextricably linked - as without one you wouldn't have the other.

Even if what you do have is weaksauce compared to what it could have been if every President since WW1 insisted, as Trump has, that other nations pick up the bill for their own defense and pay the US for services provided, if it wasn't for our leading role in keeping the world open for trade amongst our anti-communist allies we wouldn't at present have the clout required to take on the last true haven for communism - even if China is only relevant because we've subsidized their economy with imbalanced trade deals.

If you want to blame anyone for Trump's military focus and domestic game of whackamole where he tries to make any progress at all with the power he does have while the House twiddles their thumbs, blame OPEC nations and Saudi Arabia - who rocked the boat in the middle of the cold war and threw off the yoke of the "Seven Sisters" where they could. As soon as the petro-dollar became a thing we stopped merely "strangling" or limiting the spread of communism, and became an active financier of supposedly anti-communist forces in the Mid East that were really agents of foreign regimes who happened to also be literal crusaders for their own religious factions.

Opening China to trade simply created a demand for cheap crap that other SE Asian and Oceanic nations have now moved to fill, while coddling ever imperiled and paranoid-psychotic regimes who have constantly conspired together to recreate the 1970s artificial oil "shortages" labeled as such because recognizing the embargo power of the mid-East is too embarrassing for Western Historians.

So I'll finish up by saying that, like with medicine, sometimes you have to feel sicker before you can get better - and while you clearly object to suffering through the process of healing as would anyone that wishes they'd never become sick at all, there is likely no way forward that doesn't involve some pain. As just like real world viruses that fight to live, those in positions of authority with "embargo" power within our government are actively working to hold onto the power they do have and to continue endlessly expanding their own authority and wealth - even if, like a virus, such "success" is clearly Pyrrhic in nature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_energy_crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_oil_crisis

https://ih0.redbubble.net/image.45811883.9266/flat,1000x1000,075,f.jpg

We are in WWIII right now and have been underspending for decades.

As far as medicare, we elderpedes are the largest voting block the country has ever seen. The News is just a scare tactic. They won't touch it. The Dems of course want to overwhelm it by adding everybody, so we must VOTE them out when/where we can period.

As far as military, well, we need it.

It's continuously looked at, watched, and sometimes problems found & fixed.

Tariffs, actually can pay for it, as well as NATO funds, along with things like Keeping the Oil & other assets when we have to send troops into hot spots.

Our largest problem as a country is the plan to alter demographics by open borders, and the commies elected into positions of authority.

VOTE & Keep on Voting!