PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - UK Strategic Defence Review 2020 - get your bids in now ladies & gents
Old 1st Mar 2022, 10:19
  #815 (permalink)  
Not_a_boffin
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
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Originally Posted by pr00ne
Johnson will just do as he did last week in the Commons, bleat on about last years uplift, point out that we have a defence budget of a minimum of 2% of GDP, and continue to cut numbers and remove capabilities.
Which begs the question - which other budgets do you suggest he cuts to pay for a defence increase? We are already at the highest levels of overall taxation and government spending as a proportion of GDP for generations. The glib answer is to suggest that "the rich and/or evil US corporations" pay more. Trouble is "the richest 10%" are already paying something like 50% of total income tax (I forget the exact proportion). When you actually get away from the "sales" as opposed to profit figures quoted, the potential recoveries are actually quite low - a couple of billion here and there, that the NHS would swallow in a week or two.

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