You're right that reducing spending, particularly the pentagon's blank check and the military budget is going to play a larger role but stop reading ahead! I can only push leftist politics one point at a time out here!

Well, if you go after the actual problem and not just talking points, you'll know it's a lot bigger than the military. And that the US military is extremely important for the whole global house of cards to stay standing.

Glad to hear that limited government is now considered leftist politics. No more pork barrels for the Democrats?

Reign in unlimited military spending is not "limited government", it's "limited military". Making sure the pentagon stops "losing" trillions is not small government it's basic accountability. But you're right it's more than that. And the billionaires. But like I said, one point at a time! You've clearly read ahead of the class. And "no more pork barrels for democrats"? I said leftist, not democrat.

I still believe in state solutions to healthcare to start, since that's the topic at hand.

And yes, I know it's much bigger than the military and pentagon, but I can't exactly summarize Pikkety's Capital and ideology or the socialist manifesto by sunkara in a couple hn comments can I?

Re the "we're vital for the whole house of cards" to remain standing, lol.

What good have we done recently besides maybe funding ukraine? Were we keeping the house of cards standing in iraq? vietnam? Korea? points to latin america in general Need I go on? Iran? Were we keeping the cards up when we spent money arming the Mujahadeen?

I mean, taxation is actually theft, even if you're stealing from the rich to give to the state. In order to justify that, you have to provide a lot of value, which we currently don't do. Angrily wanting to tax people more successful than yourself just makes you sound jealous, not optimistic. Cut the spending first, and then if the government is still in trouble, cut the spending more.

To control the hyper-rich, the solution is simple. Corporate tax breaks for your lowest paid employee's salary. The higher that floor, the less tax you pay. Incentivize prosperity, not taxation and slavery.

Military spending isn’t a binary. The US could probably spend significantly less, while still keeping the status quo.

The US military has not one, but three aerobatics teams spending over a hundred million per year total. To cite a single example of completely pointless spending

When I say it's a lot bigger than the military, I'm not meaning to exclude the military.