infrastructure, it s a disgrace what s going on with our roads and bridges, building and deploying broadband, having an energy policy that takes advantage of the opportunities to move to a clean post-carbon energy economy, and we have to rebuild in our cities and towns our sewer and water systems. these are things that will put people to work, they are visible in the community, they have a lifetime, a generational return. these are all things that we can do. you know, we have to step back as a country and as a party and say if we have confidence in ourselves and in our future, we re going to invest in our future and we re going to do what it takes to put america back to work. we are about the american dream. we have work to do. that type of spending that you were describing on infrastructure, those types of investments, even investments in clean energy, those types of jobs initiatives, investments are not the type of spending plans, not the type of
features of american government in this lifetime. america s spending what the rest of the world spends on defense combined and not debating it at home. that s what it s been like my whole life. could the defense part of that equation finally be beginning to change? joining us now is josh rogin, staff writer for foreign policy magazine. thanks for your time. thank you, welcome back. thank you. the piece says it all. lev vin and mccain, we have no idea how much debt deal cuts defense.ns cuts here are. is the vagueness of the numbers here intentional, do you think? it s totally intentional and it s intentional on all sides, republicans, zpdemocrats, administration have a vested interest in not telling the defense cuts. i hate to burst your bubble, no
what s going on with our roads and bridges, building and deploying broadband, having an energy policy that takes advantage of the opportunities to move to a clean post hv carbon energy economy, and we have to rebuild in our cities and towns our sewer and water systems. these are things that will put people to work, they are visible in the community, they have a lifetime, a generational return. these are all things that we can do. you know, we have to step back as a country and as a party and say if we have confidence in ourselves and in our future, we re going to invest in our future and we re going to do what it takes to put america back to work. we are about the american dream. we have work to do. that type of spending that you were describing on infrastructure, those types of investments, even investments in clean energy, those types of jobs nirnttives, investments are not the type of spending plans, not the type of inish tiffs,
and the markets, as you have indicated, greeted this with about a 7-point reduction in the last week, so the markets are figuring out that a slow economy is probably going to make it tougher for us to pay back our debts. the democrats have to concentrate constantly, repetitively, consistently, on jobs, jobs to rebuild our infrastructure, it s a disgrace what s going on with our roads and bridges, building and deploying broadband, having an energy policy that takes advantage of the opportunities to move to a clean post hv carbon energy economy, and we have to rebuild in our cities and towns our sewer and water systems. these are things that will put people to work, they are visible in the community, they have a lifetime, a generational return. these are all things that we can do. you know, we have to step back as a country and as a party and say if we have confidence in ourselves and in our future, we re going to invest in our future and we re going to do what it takes to put america ba
war is winding down kind of trend? we are still, even now, at previously unimaginable levels of defense spending in absolute terms. the difference between today s defense spending and spending of ronald reagan, the amount now is not unimaginable, now it s hard to imagine not spending it. there are two defining features of money and government. the tax rates have come down to a 50-year low and that defense spending in this country dwarves what the rest of the world spends on defense. those are the defining economic features of american government in this lifetime.