Remember, this isn't about the merits of each spending category, it's over which one has the greatest impact on the economy and deficits.

No one is disputing that social programs take a large chunk of change to finance but there's a return on that expense not only in money spent within our borders, salaries paid to the government workers, and above all quality of life for our citizens.

If you're going to use that as a valid argument, where the heck do you think most of the defense and war money actually ends up?

There's no real "return on expense" on either of these spending programs. The money all comes from the taxpayers in any case.

The cost of the war is, at this point, about $160 billion a year. We are approaching the $1 trillion mark for the whole war, or about $250 billion--less than one single year's worth of entitlements. The other numbers are coming out of someone's bong, enhanced by importing vague externalities that have never been applied to any other government program.

So let me get this right, your vision for America is one where we are armed to the teeth exerting our military muscle around the world while our elderly sell pencils on the corners and people wait in bread lines devasted by disease because they can't get quality health care while the fortunate among us drive their boats around the lakes unburdened by having to help out their neighbors. Nice world Tom.

Given that I just pointed out that we spend over a trillion dollars every single year on social spending specifically targeted to our elderly, that's kind of a silly statement, don't you think?