Duluth council calls on Washington to cut defense over domestic spending
December 18, 2012 at 10:51 am in Duluth News Tribune
Duluth has joined a group of city governments calling on Congress to reduce military spending and increase its focus on domestic programs as the nation moves closer to the so-called fiscal cliff.
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Is this a city council or a student council? I really dont care how our council feels about national issues. I elected other people to take care of those things. Is the city doing so well that you have nothing else to do? Get to work for what we are paying you to do.
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I can see the need to look at reducing spending where we can…..military included. How do these city councilors think they are qualified to preach about reducing government spending? My local tax bill keeps going up every year. Maybe the local politicians should practice what they preach.
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Ok, ok – we get it – Duluth (and it’s current city council) are more democratic than not.
How about we now deflate our heads and quit thinking that the Federal government cares what a 80,000- population city in the northern part of MN thinks about Congress’ next budget cycle.
GET BACK TO WORK ON THE BUSINESS OF DULUTH!!! (there is plenty to do)
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“Mother Teresa Gardner”, surely you are wasting your talents!
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Haha, isn’t this council embarrassed when they pull this crap? You know how you see someone doing something and you truly feel embarrassed for them, and they don’t have the sense to know they are making fools of themselves? That’s exactly what this council does on a regular basis, they are an embarrassment. Let’s worry about Duluth, folks.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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My God it must be painful for ‘you guys’ to sit through the misery.
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Duluth got more funding from the Bush Administration 10 years ago than now during the Obama administration . How’s that working out for you?
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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Bush hadn’t overspent and ran up deficit yet to 1.2 trillion 10 years ago yet…….GET IT??? and no, it hasn’t worked out for anybody…
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Hello
Congress spends the money…
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Quit bothering Duluth, talk to Nolan you wanted him..
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Theo, I respect you for your efforts in getting this resolution brought before the council. Certainly, the estimated $450 million that City Councilor Sharla Gardner says Duluth taxpayers have already spent on wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is an immense sum and would have been better left in their pockets, or collected to maintain and upgrade the infrastructure of the city. It doesn’t seem to me that Duluthians are any safer now because of these wars or the global “war on terrorism”. In fact, it’s most likely true that America now has even more enemies than before as a result of them. We can only hope you are correct in saying, “If enough of our voices are heard at the local level it makes the case stronger from affecting decisions at higher levels”. However, I suspect that the corporate-military complex will march on regardless of any public outcry—continuous war is after all a highly profitable venture.
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Jeff nailed it. Killing people for political and economic reasons is just too profitable. The war machine in this country is just too big too fail. We are America, our killing machine is the biggest and bestest and most profitable in the world. Be proud.
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Jeff~ Precisely. But…if enough protest, enough raise our voices then we might be able to stop this madness. We created Saddam, we supported him, we propped him up, we even gave him the spores from CDC for chemical weapons. We trained and supported Bin Laden. Iran hates us because we propped up and supported the Shah. The military industrial complex needs to create conflicts and have created all our enemies.
But the key is that the DOD is suppossed to be working for us and it’s turned into we’re working for them. America is no longer a country with an Army to defend it, it’s an Army with a country to support it.
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
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On 1 point, it is ok to at least voice their opinion to the U.S. Gov’t…..BUT, I would rather they devote their time to Duluth’s issues….which never seem to get resolved ( at least the important issues do not get fixed )…..But, their MAIN point, that they are aiming at…..is they want more money from the Gov’t ( as always )….and they feel that some of the cash that the Defense Dep’t is burning…..should go to the City of Duluth coffers……kind of like redistribution of wealth! The City cannot handle their budget….( responsibly )….so, like always, they want more from the State and the Gov’t. It just DOES NOT MATTER how much the City gets……they will spend it on useless projects…..just like the School Board! Repeat….the more they get…..the more they want…..and on and on and on…..just NEVER ends!
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I read this article several times and I certainly agree we’re about at the point where we need to re-evaluate and seriously entertain the idea of reducing our military spending. However, before any good feelings about this idea had any time to sink in…..I noticed the part where the councilors mentioned how the part of the military budget spend locally is the “model of effeciency”.
In other words, cut the bloated, wasteful military budget (elsewhere), give more money to the City of Duluth, but but please don’t cut “our” part of the military budget since we’re the model of effeciency in a sea of wasteful spending.
Don’t you think all the cities with a military presence around the country might be inclined to feel the same way ? Herein lies the problem….everyone want’s it cut, but not in our city, just everywhere else. Until we have people speaking for communities and/or states who are willing to have some skin (when the cuts happen) in the game so to speak….it’s all a hollow wasting of words.
I guess you could call it self serving vote by the council….very magnanimous of them to support such a seemingly high minded proposal.
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Hmm, maybe the City of Duluth should consider establishing departments of defense and state where our councilors can further practice their newly found skills as generals, admirals, and international diplomats.
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For all the comments does anyone know exactly how much time this consumed and exactly What city business was neglected because of it?
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Gee…I figured with so many squawking and complaining about this that everybody knew something I didn’t…since nobody bothered answering I looked up myself. This was but 1 of 50 resolutions that the council handled Monday night and the other 49 were all city business.
I dunno…there seems to be a lot in here that seem to know something I don’t see…but that sounds like they were taking care of city business to me…
I
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dear city council,
please focus on our current problems like property taxes or the low paying service jobs that people can’t feed their family on first and worry about Social Security spending after the fact since you have no input on it.
regards,
Tapped out citizen
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Nick…the powers that be are too busy attracting low paying jobs in the service sector. Doesn’t the 148th pay a living wage? Not that we shouldn’t find ways to make sure we spend military dollars wisely. Our local government keeps spending beyond our capacity to pay. When will they wake up?
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Gardner has no business taking on anything other than City business on City time. You want to speak up against war – fine – it’s called volunteer – do it on your own time, not on official City business time. This is not what you were elected for. We have so many issues that require attention in Duluth – as any local government does – I agree – we elect local for local issues & Gardner you aren’t cutting it – You have been contacted multiple times on local issues and don’t seem to bother to respond – get to work or get off the council please. And don’t spend precious council time on national issues – thats not what you are there for. I agree with the other post – until you have a local budget under control, you shouldn’t be worrying about the national budget which you have absolutely no control or voice over other than at the voting booth like the rest of us.
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The Soviet Union went under mainly because of the cold war….their defense spending bankrupted them. Our “wars” are contributing to the same.
With that said, it’s nice for the local govt. to ask the Feds to reduce defense spending, but if that were done, 100% of that money should be used for deficit reduction. The smaller governments have to learn how to do more with less. The sooner they figure that out, the better, as they can expect less and less federal dollars in the future.
Between the lines, I suspect the council may be saying it is becoming impossible to provide the services needed with the amount of money allocated….which very well may be true.
This economic spiral is no surprise.
It has been predicted for decades, along with problems with social security, medicare, national debt interest, ect. The stories I read about these subjects are the exactly the same I read in 1980, except the debt was $1 trillion then, with the dates of our demise not much different as they are written today, except that we are much closer to those those dates now. The national debt interest is 27% of the entire budget. I invite you to read where it will be in 20 years. Also read about what percentage of the national budget our other growing large expenditures will be. In just a few decades, there will be no federal money to service anything beyond these major items. Again, no surprise here….just some simple math.
What’s the solution? I don’t have one…..these issues needed to be painfully dealt with at least 30 years ago, when their impact would have been significant, but survivable.
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Dear Sharla Gardner and the rest of the libs on this page:
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.
John Stuart Mill
English economist & philosopher (1806 – 1873)
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