If I remember correctly, you could make public universities in the US free by simply auditing and reigning in wasteful expenditures by the US military.
I've heard that too. And reading stories by the enlisted about the waste and inefficiency in the military make me groan as a citizen and a taxpayer. They don't like the waste, the bipartisan consensus in congress doesn't like the waste, this should be fixable.
I doubt it. The military-industrial complex is so deeply engrained in the country that I think it's literally impossible to budge. There's so many pockets of defense industry around the country that Congressmen have secured with pork barrel spending over the past ~70 years that downsizing any one part is electoral suicide. And we all know government agencies aren't famous for wanting to ever downsize their budgets, lest they don't fight for their "fuck you, got mine" part of the annual budget.
It's fucked, it really is. I don't see it ever changing.
Even something like "let's just set next year's budget at, say, 98% of this year's budget" is met with pushback and scorn.
As a kid, I remember hearing some political debates and people were talking about 'cuts' to programs (military, whatever). Our govt teacher dove in, and showed us what they were actually talking about was cuts to proposed increases. Proposing an increase of 30%, and someone else saying "just make it 27% increase" could be accused of "cutting program X by 10%!" And (enough) people often believe it, and we get nothing done.
It would be fantastic if we could, for example, say next years military budget is 99.5% of this years, and the year after, the same thing. 2 years from now we'd still be at ~99% of current spending. I doubt even something this sane could happen.
What's all the more crappy about this is some of the same people voting for continued increases in military spending have also been the ones who've condescendingly talked down to people about "family budgeting"-style spending, and "we just can't afford that extra $37m for food programs for the needy!"
