America's excessive spending on its senior citizens poses an existential threat to our national security. The @WashingtonPost editorial is back at it today, warning that the US spends so much $$$ on senior citizens and "healthcare" that it cannot afford a real war. Some highlights: - "All purchases of guns up to 30mm caliber across all military branches in 2025 cost about $650 million, less than four hours of Social Security spending." !!! - "The projected all-in cost of buying, operating, maintaining, upgrading and fueling the notoriously expensive F-35 program over its entire 94-year lifecycle is less than last year’s spending of $2.3 trillion on Medicaid and Social Security." - "the $13 billion price tag on a Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier equals about three days of Social Security spending." - Due to excessive spending on senior citizens, relative to more pressing needs, America's nuclear arsenal is outdated. For example, the B-52 bomber has been in operation for over 70 years and was. (Also its sole uranium processing facility is 80 years old and doesn't meet modern safety codes.) - Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen warned in 2010 that “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt." - Then the national debt was ~$13 Trillion. Today it is $40 Trillion. - The military needs to adapt to drone warfare, as seen in Ukraine and Iran, but those demands come on top of, not instead of, conventional capabilities. - If we leave it to the politicians and their friends at the AARP, it will only get worse: "Beginning in 2032, more than half of all federal spending will go toward just Social Security and major health care programs." The Bottom Line: We must decide if we want to be a sovereign nation or a retirement home. The next decade is when we make that choice. And it comes down to our budget.