I tend to not be bothered by DoE being in charge of nuclear research and such. It gives another aspect of civilian control to the nuclear side of things.

DHS, State, DoJ have policing organizations/component. While they may contain some ‘para-military’ aspects, they are most emphatically NOT military.

DIA budget is handled as part of the DoD. It is not part of CIA and falls under the “black” portion of the DoD.

I’d like to see some proof on DoD recruiting efforts kept off budget.

While I decry the impact on the VA of the execrable wars, as a veteran myself, I appreciate the fact that there is a cabinet level group that at least nominally watches out for my interests.

Look, I worked in an Air Force Accounting and Finance office for 5 1/2 years and spent an additional dozen years working in various aspects of DoD procurements, as a direct federal employee and as a contractor scum. DoD has a lot of waste (as do many other parts of the Federal budget). Obama is at least attempting to rein things in and bring SOME transparencies through bringing the wars back into the budget. If you know what the codes are, you can find information about DoD, even within the DoD budget.

Another are the pages of subsidies to oil companies and other healthy industries. We can no longer afford them; they’re “socialistic” anyway, non? Corporations are supposed to use the same bootstraps as poor people.

Last summer during the oil price debate/discussion when I first heard we were still giving subsidies to the oil industry I couldn’t believe it. It’s absurd.

I noticed that the Social Security surplus was not highlighted. This reduces the off-budget deficit (the number most commonly used by the media and politicians to describe the budget deficit) by about $200 billion. Why is that?

I guess that kind of Truth is still a little out of their reach. Heh.

We moved out of Cam Rahn Bay and the russkies moved in.

What did it get them?

A very solid follow-on would be to shut down at least 50% of the 750+ military bases garrisoning the entire planet at great expense to We the People.

Think of the long-term retirement pay & services which would quickly disappear.

Some examples he listed was a payroll deduction 401k for virtually all workers as an opt out, rather than opt in

Is that the ‘universal savings accounts’ Obama mentioned in his big not-the-SOTU speech?

Fact One: This budget does not go far enough, even by a fraction.

Fact Two: Dr. Orszag knows Fact One.

Treasury – military retirement fund

DoE – nuclear weapons and research)

Homeland Security – various

DOJ – Assistance to DoD, State, et al., including paramilitary activities of the FBI

Transportation Dept.

State – foreign military assistance

Veterans Affairs – longterm health care of ex-service men and women

General Budget – interest on debt-financed defense expenses

NASA – military portion, eg, DoD satellites, launch and recovery costs

Intelligence Agencies – eg, NSA, CIA. I’m not sure which budget the DIA’s costs hit

Add’l Recruitment and Re-enlistment efforts off Pentagon’s books

Black projects not in publicly disclosed budget numbers (est’d 30-40% of acknowledged Pentagon budget)

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – supplemental appropriations

I had suggested acupuncture as an alternative to surgery after the second cortisone shot had no lasting effect. Surgery was never pushed as an option – I had to ask about recovery times for surgery. I was told very fast recovery, and that she had seen patients that presented symptoms for 4 years or more that were pretty irritated they didn’t get surgery after 3 or 4 months.

I didn’t follow up on acupuncture as the condition ceased bothering me about 4 weeks after the third doctor visit.

Anecdote, probably of interest only to people who have De Quervain’s: when I mentioned my wrist pain to a manager, she made me fill out a workplace injury form, and then I had to go to the doctor to have it looked at — not my regular doctor, the industrial medicine doctor. I was sent to physical therapy, which went on for a year and had no effect (which means maybe it would have gotten worse without therapy. or not). It went on for a year because each time I went to the doctor for a re-evaluation, it was a different doctor, and each new doctor said he wanted to pursue a conservative approach, so he prescribed physical therapy. Finally, due to some reorganization, I was sent to a doctor at the Medical Center, and he wanted to try a different approach. Two five-minute acupuncture treatments later, no more De Quervain’s (occasionally my wrist feels sore, and I stretch it). It was also near the end of my physical therapy that I finally got the therapist to answer the question that none of the doctors did: I wasn’t in danger of getting Carpal-Tunnel Syndrome.

YMMV, of course. And no, I don’t believe in meridian lines or anything like that. I think the acupuncture disrupted the pain cycle, allowing inflammation to subside.