Re: Campaign Economics--Real Deal

At 08:47 AM 5/7/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Well, First off, I don't want to seem stuck up or a "know-it-all".  I
am
>neither.  What I said was what I heard from a tv reporter. (some of who
>either distort facts, or don't have the facts to beging with).  This
>might explain the figures.  
>
>Also, the U.S. military during carter's presidency was limited in
>funds.  they had trouble scraping up the cash to maintain what they
>had...In some cases, crewmen were "jury-rigging" things to keep them
>going.  The b-52 fleet at the time was at it's worst.	only a third of
>the b-52's could fly.	the rest were out of commision for maintenance
>problems.
>
>One reporter (dan rather I think..) was trying to do a report from a
>b-52 in the air...they had to try three planes before they found one
>that could fly.
>
>Donald Hosford

Sorry Don. I was not trying to put you down in any way. I was also
referring to the TV report, not your comments on it. One thing I found
during my Masters work was that trying to get solid figures on this
stuff
is almost impossible. Every source you pick-up gives a different figure
and/or scale (different sources even refute the value of a nation's GNP
at
any particular time).

The military wasn't really under-funded under Carter (although salaries
certainly where). Remember that the M1, AH-64, F-117, and, I think, the
Aegis system where all begun under Carter (as well as many more). I'm
not
saying Carter was any defense God, just that he HAS gotten more of a bad
rap than he deserves. Also remember that the national deficit actually
went
DOWN under Carter during his first two terms. Reagan's spending was
wonderful at the time but the military is certainly paying for it now. I
remember in the early 90s, my armor battalion didn't have enough funds
for
GAS so we could go on maneuvers! Of course it showed the value of
wargaming
I guess...:-) 

-----
Paul J. Calvi Jr.
tanker@rahul.net

"Objective, Offense, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command,
Security, Surprise, Simplicity"

15SEP16