Well Said, Bernie Sanders!

[Jonathan Whatley]

defense spending has actually gone DOWN

Overall since the Cold War. It's headed back up since 2001, per ryoder's link.

Bernie Sanders is just trying to tie the deficit to popular scapegoats (eeevil Bush!; the greedy rich!; reckless Wall street!) when the fact is that politicians such as himself (both Republicans AND Democrats, with Democrats holding the purse strings for the last 5 years) are the ones ultimately responsible for the deficit and our current crisis.

Jeez, he cites the recession and tax breaks. Couldn't a conservative just agree the recession was a contributing factor but disagree on its causality, agree low tax revenues relative to spending was an obvious cause for the deficit but disagree on the necessity of such high spending, and agree that the wars contributed something but not much. I'm sorry for any way in which I've contributed to your becoming so angry. I did follow your link; it said that "Future expenses are a question mark… Medical costs for the injured and veterans' compensation balloon as time goes on," and didn't mention debt service. I tried to engage across the divide. Again, I am sorry.