Our tax $$ at work...

I've argued before that folks usually don't mind paying for value. What gets us upset is paying good $$ for shoddy merchandise or lousy service. We're happy to pay real money to eat at a fancy restaurant if the food is good and well-presented, and the service is good. We only get ticked off when we pay real money for lousy food, poorly presented, accompanied by surly wait-staff.

Similarly, I think we'd be happy to pay $600Bn for national defense if we were convinced we're really buying $600Bn worth of national defense. But headlines like the following are not encouraging:

Report: Military not ready for US attack

Afghanistan may plunge into 'failed state', experts warn

We're paying $600Bn/year on defense for what again????

The greatest military in the world is losing two wars to third-world insurgents.
These two wars have crippled our military's ability to defend the country.

To any Democratic candidates out there who might be listening: here's a barn-door opening for you to stress that YOU have better national security credibility than your Republican opponent!

They - the Republicans - are the ones that got us into this mess. It's pure foolishness to expect 'em to get us out!!

Stop the madness!