Go get a license and a shotgun, they are only protected like other migratory water fowl and aren't on any endangered species list. Go and attempt take your daily limit of sky carp every day when they are in season (I try to) and even if you don't like goose meat you can always give it away.
I have always like Terrorists Suppressing Americans my self but Terrorists' Surrogate Army is pretty good as well. I will have to replace TSA in the announcements at the airport the next I go with it to see which one is funnier/more truthful.
You forget that both parties are pro government, just pro their government. They all piss and moan about spending when out of power but when they gain power the old spending doesn't go away they just spend more on their pet projects. Similar with erosion of rights. Repeat the cycle a few times and it isn't like a pendulum swinging back and forth as is often described but a zig-zag path down to hell.
They are just a block of rubber or plastic with some bolts in or through it and like all bushings will eventually wear out and need replacement. My point was after 10 years they shouldn't be shot unless the vehicle was really beat on in which case I stay clear. It is just one of the many signs I look for when I buy used vehicles. Like misaligned exterior trim, I can probably easily fix it but it shouldn't be like that so something is wrong with that vehicle.
That car sounds like it was a lemon to start with and the dealer a fairly dodgy one. Some of those problems would have been picked up on by know what to look for when shopping, and a proper vehicle inspection while others could have been avoided by not going to a dodgy dealer and repair shop. The head gasket may have just been a fluke but given the other issues it was probably caused by the vehicle being beaten on and not properly maintained.
The power steering pump was probably worn out and/or the fluid shot from someone keeping the wheel turned to the max for too long and was probably the original fluid. the pump probably had an audible hum when you turned the steering wheel and possibly a vibration when turning the steering wheel even when stationary. The fluid if it took the clear power steering fluid was probably brown, gray, or black by now or if it took ATF was no longer red but orange or brown. Power steering pumps are fairly robust even if neglected but it sounds like yours was abused and neglected and I have never had one fail on me.
For brakes you can just look to see how worn they are (I always check that when I get a vehicle) and the shop you took it to sounds like they did a dodgy repair. The $400 for it doesn't sound out of line for labor and part for a 4 wheel brake job with pads, rotors, and flush of old brake fluid. It sounds like the shop didn't know how to bleed brakes properly and I would have brought it back to them and made them redo it until it was right. I typically can go 100,000 miles between doing front brakes and made it to just over 200,000 before having to do rear ones so that pad wear seems excessive given that you only had 60,000 or so miles on it when you got it. If you had to replace calipers then you missed the metal on metal grinding noise of the pad backing being run into the rotor or drum. Also rotors typically need to be replaced with pads on most vehicles since they are designed to wear together and be replaced at the same time.
I don't like automatics but have driven vehicles with them because I can't be too picky when I need a vehicle right now since the previous one no longer runs. They are a typical weak point in a vehicle unless you really take good care of them and even then they will fail sooner than a manual one. You have the valve bodies that start to leak internally and get out of spec, torque converters that wear out, and clutches that wear out. Yours probably had the original fluid and filter in it and given that it seems like the rest of the car was beat on it was probably in desperate need of replacement. The fluid may have been burned and/or filled with metal and I don't know if Toyota uses sealed automatics or if they still have a dip stick, but if they aren't sealed then checking the fluid right after driving would have revealed how bad it was. Never buy a car with an automatic if the transmission fluid: is iridescent, smells burnt, or is not bright red, in all cases it has been neglected and you will have problems sooner rather than later.
You really believe that I don't know what a new car is suppose to sound or drive like. I test drive new vehicles all the time, especially when I go vehicle shopping so I have a fresh idea of how vehicles are suppose to be. Before I test drove the car I ended up buying from the dealer I got it from I test drove a new M5 and a new M3 and used those as baselines for the car I ended up buying. I have also drive my fathers new Z06 Vette the day he got it last year, as well as going with my wife (girlfriend at the time) when she got her car new as well as a host of other cars over the years. I have also had more performance tuned suspensions put into some vehicles as I did do SCCA solo racing for a while and would like to get back to it with my project car. The thing I have learned over the years are that vehicles should have tight suspension and steering as in no slop but not race car harsh (I have had this setup on a vehicle and while fun for the track not so much for the street) and that any noise, rattle, squeal, squeak, thud, and vibration should be investigated and resolved since it is cheaper to do now rather than later
When you buy a vehicle don't you get it checked out before you buy it either by your self or a competent mechanic? In general suspension parts are consumable, especially shocks, struts, ball joints, sway bar links, sway bar bushings, and control arm bushings and all have finite lifetimes and need to be replaced typically every 50 to 100 thousand miles depending on driving conditions and habits. I haven't had a vehicle that hasn't needed most of those replaced during my ownership of them, and some needed them multiple times because of the miles I have put on vehicles
Why can't a Bronco II 2.9L V6 engine last to 250k miles, it wasn't as strong as it was originally and did burn some oil but it worked up until the one of the fuel pumps failed and it wasn't worth fixing, and no I don't presently own it. I got that vehicle from my uncle who bought it used with less than 100,000 miles on it and drove it to 240,??? when I bought it and he never had the engine overhauled so if it was done it was done before it had 100,000 miles on it and before 1997. That and I have never claimed that the Bronco was anywhere near perfect but it was well worth the $250 I paid for it especially since the 4wd worked. The 96 Jeep I have has the original engine and it hasn't been rebuilt but has 377,??? miles on it since it was dealer maintained and had a car fax that shows the maintenance done. Since the numbers match for the vehicle I know the engine hasn't been replaced but given the regularity of the maintenance it had received from the original dealer it is also a safe bet that it hasn't been overhauled. It was also a one owner vehicle. You might also be shocked by the other vehicles I have owned as well because almost every one of them had more than 200k miles on them and the one that didn't would have otherwise easily made it over 200k. My first vehicle was an '85 Olds Cutlass Supreme with the 3.8 in it had the original engine when it died at 257,??? miles. It was my grandfather's car and he bought it new in 85 and gave it to me since he was going to send it off to the scrap yard and I know that was the original engine and it hadn't been overhauled. My previous daily driver (97 BMW 540i) had 275,??? miles on it and it would still smoke the tires off of a stop if I turned the traction control off without getting on the converter and would squeal them nicely when it would shift into second and squeak them when shifting into 3rd with the automatic transmission. This is probably why I blew the tranny in it, but it was fun while it lasted. The daily driver before that (96 BMW 318ti) was the street and track car before I had kids and that was the low mileage one in the lot. It handled like it was on rails and you could go around a sharp city block right hand turn and stay in the correct lane with ease at 30mph, and freeway cloverleafs were always taken at the freeway speed limit. It got plowed under by a high s
Drive a new car and tell me that. By 10-15 the motor mounts are shot just from dry rot.
Don't you rev the engine on a used vehicle with the hood up to see that it doesn't move much if any. Also there will typically be mroe vibration from the engine if you have ones that are going since part of their purpose is to dampen engine vibration. I have seen vehicles with bad motor mounts but haven't purchased one so maybe other have had them replaced but I haven't.
I wonder what other great works of literature are being blocked by this system because they are too violent. Some others that come to mind as possible candidates are:
Beiowulf
The Song of Roland
The Canterbury Tails
The Divine Comedy
Le Morte d'Drthur
The Three Musketeers
One Thousand and One Nights
The Iliad
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Epic of Gilgamesh
There are plenty of others that I could add to the list but these are some of the most widely known stories in western societies and are part of our cultural heritage. As I am not in the UK I can't investigate but it would be interesting to see what is blocked. Or better yet instead of blocking things we just accept that a very large portion of our great literary works contain vast amounts of violence or sex and just let it go. It isn't like the Disney version of stories actually is true to the source, go read the original Grimms' Snow White or Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights for just a couple of examples.
Sounds like you have bought some vehicles that were beat on a lot or that people never cared about. While I have had vehicles with bad interiors I have never had to deal with a bad motor mount or transmission mount. The interior of my Jeep Cherokee and the Bronco II it replaced are shot then again the Jeep has excessive miles on it at 377,??? and the Bronco II had 252,??? miles on it and was 25 years old when I got it and even then the interiors got much worse after I got them since I do and did truck things with them. My daily drivers have all had good to immaculate interiors, even the crap first cars I had when I was in college. The newest vehicle I ever bought was only 8 years old and only had 80,000 miles on it (also lowest miles), and my current daily driver is 11 years old and has 95,??? miles on it and I got it about 6 weeks ago and my co workers all thought it was either brand new or much newer. My previous car had a great interior and was 16 years old and had 275,??? miles on it when the automatic transmission failed but the interior was immaculate, the leather was all nice, soft and clean, the dash was crack free, the trim all looked good, the carpet clean, the roof padding nice and tight.
While a bearing failing out of the blue for something like a cam or crank shaft it is exceedingly rare if they kept oil in the car stuff like water pumps, and alternators are basically consumables and just wear out and aren't too expensive to have replaced. I also get your point about people unnecessarily beating on their vehicles I see the same things. The one that gets me is when the engine first catches it's like they are in a drag race out of their parking spot, let the engine run for a couple of seconds and build oil pressure. My point was that most people should realize that it is much cheaper to maintain your vehicle than it is to replace it and that little problems like little squeaks, rattles, and squeals are a lot cheaper to fix than when what ever was rattling, squealing, or squeaking fails in a catastrophic manner.
For example if a wheel is making noise have it checked either by a shop or your self if you know what to look for and make the noise go away:
It might be the pad wear indicator just starting to scrape (replace the brake pads and enjoy your new found stopping power)
It might be that you have run the pad backing into the rotor in which case you avoided a very bad problem but you might need you hearing checked since it got this far
The bearing might just be a little dry in which case greasing it solves the problem
If the bearing is completely dry you just avoided a very bad problem
If the needle bearings are gone you just avoid a very bad problem but why did you wait so long as it should have been making nose for a while so go get your hearing checked
A 10 to 15 year old car shouldn't require extensive maintenance (electric, hybrid or straight ICE doesn't matter) unless it has been driven excessive miles and even then it shouldn't require much more than normal if it was taken care of. At that age and mileage the typical things that need more attention and replacement are suspension/steering components and possibly wheel bearings just because they wear out. For stuff like that it wouldn't matter if it were an ICE or electric vehicle since both have those parts. Now an automatic transmission might need to be overhauled (you should have been taking care of it to begin with if you got it new) and you may have to put in a new clutch on a manual (only if you don't know how to drive stick or learned on this vehicle) but other than that a vehicle with 150,000+ miles on it should run fine.
I thought that name sounded familiar. I was aware of his currency which given its dates and fairly wide acceptance in the SF area at the time was a historical curiosity since confederate and union currency also circulated at that time but his currency was never discounted compared to gold unlike either of the others. My particular section of the numismatist world is odd paper currency (I have lots of historical curiosities that I have collected mostly invasion or war time currencies) and really wish I could afford one of his "Imperial Government of Norton I" bills but they are a bit hard to come by anyway (I would be in a lot of trouble with the wife if I bought one).
Yes it is a very weak correlation but it appears more asymptotic instead of linear to me anyway. Man I need to start gaming the system so I can be a presidential contender the next time around.
I am not sure I want the media to waste more time reporting on random crap on twitter. The few times I have watched TV news they like to spew lots of crap from their twitter feed up there now. It would be nice if they just went to the facts instead.
Your points on ignoring Paul during the GOP primaries was well noted. I noticed the same thing such as the radio news would mention every other candidate but him and would never report on percentages he got while mentioning every other candidate. At least if Paul had been the nomination the GOP would of had an engaging passionate candidate. Romney seemed like the GOP's version Al Gore in that regards.
You aren't far off with the concept of full treatment cost. Joking aside insurance only pays a certain percentage for specific procedures on top of that there are deductibles and co-pays. Toss in they byzantine layering and billing and it becomes an absolute mess that is never as simple or clear as it initially appears or should be. Those items are typically considered out of pocket expenses in the US.
While our military spending is rather excessive I get the impression that Europe rather enjoys our spending on our military as it means they get to spend less on their militaries and enjoy the influx of US dollars into their countries. As a side bonus they get to divert those funds they would have to spend on their own defense elsewhere and can point out how much less they spend on defense than the US. Personally I would love to see us bring all of our troops home starting with Europe, the middle east, and South America as those are the easiest to unwind. There are a few instance that will take a bit more to unwind like active ares (Afghanistan, South Korea, Africa) but I would love to see us out of every country that isn't the US or its territories within the next 4 years. The only other issue I see is with keeping shipping lanes open and free of piracy which the US Navy puts a lot of effort into doing which seems to be a valid function but other countries should be stepping up to the plate more with this as well.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking of more of a 2x4 to the groin but if one is wearing those fancy firefighter boots that would be acceptable as well.
Go get a license and a shotgun, they are only protected like other migratory water fowl and aren't on any endangered species list. Go and attempt take your daily limit of sky carp every day when they are in season (I try to) and even if you don't like goose meat you can always give it away.
Don't worry it wasn't quoted from the Phantom Menace so not everything is out of order.
I have always like Terrorists Suppressing Americans my self but Terrorists' Surrogate Army is pretty good as well. I will have to replace TSA in the announcements at the airport the next I go with it to see which one is funnier/more truthful.
You forget that both parties are pro government, just pro their government. They all piss and moan about spending when out of power but when they gain power the old spending doesn't go away they just spend more on their pet projects. Similar with erosion of rights. Repeat the cycle a few times and it isn't like a pendulum swinging back and forth as is often described but a zig-zag path down to hell.
We don't but we do know that the ones made by the republicans and democrats are lies.
That this doesn't happen more often speaks well of a society and those who are in place to serve and protect it.
Either that or we just don't know about it because it happens to people that are undesirable that don't get much sympathy in the media.
They are just a block of rubber or plastic with some bolts in or through it and like all bushings will eventually wear out and need replacement. My point was after 10 years they shouldn't be shot unless the vehicle was really beat on in which case I stay clear. It is just one of the many signs I look for when I buy used vehicles. Like misaligned exterior trim, I can probably easily fix it but it shouldn't be like that so something is wrong with that vehicle.
That car sounds like it was a lemon to start with and the dealer a fairly dodgy one. Some of those problems would have been picked up on by know what to look for when shopping, and a proper vehicle inspection while others could have been avoided by not going to a dodgy dealer and repair shop. The head gasket may have just been a fluke but given the other issues it was probably caused by the vehicle being beaten on and not properly maintained.
The power steering pump was probably worn out and/or the fluid shot from someone keeping the wheel turned to the max for too long and was probably the original fluid. the pump probably had an audible hum when you turned the steering wheel and possibly a vibration when turning the steering wheel even when stationary. The fluid if it took the clear power steering fluid was probably brown, gray, or black by now or if it took ATF was no longer red but orange or brown. Power steering pumps are fairly robust even if neglected but it sounds like yours was abused and neglected and I have never had one fail on me.
For brakes you can just look to see how worn they are (I always check that when I get a vehicle) and the shop you took it to sounds like they did a dodgy repair. The $400 for it doesn't sound out of line for labor and part for a 4 wheel brake job with pads, rotors, and flush of old brake fluid. It sounds like the shop didn't know how to bleed brakes properly and I would have brought it back to them and made them redo it until it was right. I typically can go 100,000 miles between doing front brakes and made it to just over 200,000 before having to do rear ones so that pad wear seems excessive given that you only had 60,000 or so miles on it when you got it. If you had to replace calipers then you missed the metal on metal grinding noise of the pad backing being run into the rotor or drum. Also rotors typically need to be replaced with pads on most vehicles since they are designed to wear together and be replaced at the same time.
I don't like automatics but have driven vehicles with them because I can't be too picky when I need a vehicle right now since the previous one no longer runs. They are a typical weak point in a vehicle unless you really take good care of them and even then they will fail sooner than a manual one. You have the valve bodies that start to leak internally and get out of spec, torque converters that wear out, and clutches that wear out. Yours probably had the original fluid and filter in it and given that it seems like the rest of the car was beat on it was probably in desperate need of replacement. The fluid may have been burned and/or filled with metal and I don't know if Toyota uses sealed automatics or if they still have a dip stick, but if they aren't sealed then checking the fluid right after driving would have revealed how bad it was. Never buy a car with an automatic if the transmission fluid: is iridescent, smells burnt, or is not bright red, in all cases it has been neglected and you will have problems sooner rather than later.
You really believe that I don't know what a new car is suppose to sound or drive like. I test drive new vehicles all the time, especially when I go vehicle shopping so I have a fresh idea of how vehicles are suppose to be. Before I test drove the car I ended up buying from the dealer I got it from I test drove a new M5 and a new M3 and used those as baselines for the car I ended up buying. I have also drive my fathers new Z06 Vette the day he got it last year, as well as going with my wife (girlfriend at the time) when she got her car new as well as a host of other cars over the years. I have also had more performance tuned suspensions put into some vehicles as I did do SCCA solo racing for a while and would like to get back to it with my project car. The thing I have learned over the years are that vehicles should have tight suspension and steering as in no slop but not race car harsh (I have had this setup on a vehicle and while fun for the track not so much for the street) and that any noise, rattle, squeal, squeak, thud, and vibration should be investigated and resolved since it is cheaper to do now rather than later
When you buy a vehicle don't you get it checked out before you buy it either by your self or a competent mechanic? In general suspension parts are consumable, especially shocks, struts, ball joints, sway bar links, sway bar bushings, and control arm bushings and all have finite lifetimes and need to be replaced typically every 50 to 100 thousand miles depending on driving conditions and habits. I haven't had a vehicle that hasn't needed most of those replaced during my ownership of them, and some needed them multiple times because of the miles I have put on vehicles
Why can't a Bronco II 2.9L V6 engine last to 250k miles, it wasn't as strong as it was originally and did burn some oil but it worked up until the one of the fuel pumps failed and it wasn't worth fixing, and no I don't presently own it. I got that vehicle from my uncle who bought it used with less than 100,000 miles on it and drove it to 240,??? when I bought it and he never had the engine overhauled so if it was done it was done before it had 100,000 miles on it and before 1997. That and I have never claimed that the Bronco was anywhere near perfect but it was well worth the $250 I paid for it especially since the 4wd worked. The 96 Jeep I have has the original engine and it hasn't been rebuilt but has 377,??? miles on it since it was dealer maintained and had a car fax that shows the maintenance done. Since the numbers match for the vehicle I know the engine hasn't been replaced but given the regularity of the maintenance it had received from the original dealer it is also a safe bet that it hasn't been overhauled. It was also a one owner vehicle. You might also be shocked by the other vehicles I have owned as well because almost every one of them had more than 200k miles on them and the one that didn't would have otherwise easily made it over 200k. My first vehicle was an '85 Olds Cutlass Supreme with the 3.8 in it had the original engine when it died at 257,??? miles. It was my grandfather's car and he bought it new in 85 and gave it to me since he was going to send it off to the scrap yard and I know that was the original engine and it hadn't been overhauled. My previous daily driver (97 BMW 540i) had 275,??? miles on it and it would still smoke the tires off of a stop if I turned the traction control off without getting on the converter and would squeal them nicely when it would shift into second and squeak them when shifting into 3rd with the automatic transmission. This is probably why I blew the tranny in it, but it was fun while it lasted. The daily driver before that (96 BMW 318ti) was the street and track car before I had kids and that was the low mileage one in the lot. It handled like it was on rails and you could go around a sharp city block right hand turn and stay in the correct lane with ease at 30mph, and freeway cloverleafs were always taken at the freeway speed limit. It got plowed under by a high s
Which they shouldn't see any of since they are under the hood.
Drive a new car and tell me that.
By 10-15 the motor mounts are shot just from dry rot.
Don't you rev the engine on a used vehicle with the hood up to see that it doesn't move much if any. Also there will typically be mroe vibration from the engine if you have ones that are going since part of their purpose is to dampen engine vibration. I have seen vehicles with bad motor mounts but haven't purchased one so maybe other have had them replaced but I haven't.
I wonder what other great works of literature are being blocked by this system because they are too violent. Some others that come to mind as possible candidates are:
Beiowulf
The Song of Roland
The Canterbury Tails
The Divine Comedy
Le Morte d'Drthur
The Three Musketeers
One Thousand and One Nights
The Iliad
Grimms' Fairy Tales
Epic of Gilgamesh
There are plenty of others that I could add to the list but these are some of the most widely known stories in western societies and are part of our cultural heritage. As I am not in the UK I can't investigate but it would be interesting to see what is blocked. Or better yet instead of blocking things we just accept that a very large portion of our great literary works contain vast amounts of violence or sex and just let it go. It isn't like the Disney version of stories actually is true to the source, go read the original Grimms' Snow White or Aladdin and The Wonderful Lamp from One Thousand and One Nights for just a couple of examples.
So not all that dissimilar to this ./ discussion:
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1662326&cid=32320526
Sounds like you have bought some vehicles that were beat on a lot or that people never cared about. While I have had vehicles with bad interiors I have never had to deal with a bad motor mount or transmission mount. The interior of my Jeep Cherokee and the Bronco II it replaced are shot then again the Jeep has excessive miles on it at 377,??? and the Bronco II had 252,??? miles on it and was 25 years old when I got it and even then the interiors got much worse after I got them since I do and did truck things with them. My daily drivers have all had good to immaculate interiors, even the crap first cars I had when I was in college. The newest vehicle I ever bought was only 8 years old and only had 80,000 miles on it (also lowest miles), and my current daily driver is 11 years old and has 95,??? miles on it and I got it about 6 weeks ago and my co workers all thought it was either brand new or much newer. My previous car had a great interior and was 16 years old and had 275,??? miles on it when the automatic transmission failed but the interior was immaculate, the leather was all nice, soft and clean, the dash was crack free, the trim all looked good, the carpet clean, the roof padding nice and tight.
While a bearing failing out of the blue for something like a cam or crank shaft it is exceedingly rare if they kept oil in the car stuff like water pumps, and alternators are basically consumables and just wear out and aren't too expensive to have replaced. I also get your point about people unnecessarily beating on their vehicles I see the same things. The one that gets me is when the engine first catches it's like they are in a drag race out of their parking spot, let the engine run for a couple of seconds and build oil pressure. My point was that most people should realize that it is much cheaper to maintain your vehicle than it is to replace it and that little problems like little squeaks, rattles, and squeals are a lot cheaper to fix than when what ever was rattling, squealing, or squeaking fails in a catastrophic manner.
For example if a wheel is making noise have it checked either by a shop or your self if you know what to look for and make the noise go away:
It might be the pad wear indicator just starting to scrape (replace the brake pads and enjoy your new found stopping power) It might be that you have run the pad backing into the rotor in which case you avoided a very bad problem but you might need you hearing checked since it got this far
The bearing might just be a little dry in which case greasing it solves the problem
If the bearing is completely dry you just avoided a very bad problem
If the needle bearings are gone you just avoid a very bad problem but why did you wait so long as it should have been making nose for a while so go get your hearing checked
If it is still under warranty then the manufacturer gets to replace the battery if it is out of warranty then I pay either way.
A 10 to 15 year old car shouldn't require extensive maintenance (electric, hybrid or straight ICE doesn't matter) unless it has been driven excessive miles and even then it shouldn't require much more than normal if it was taken care of. At that age and mileage the typical things that need more attention and replacement are suspension/steering components and possibly wheel bearings just because they wear out. For stuff like that it wouldn't matter if it were an ICE or electric vehicle since both have those parts. Now an automatic transmission might need to be overhauled (you should have been taking care of it to begin with if you got it new) and you may have to put in a new clutch on a manual (only if you don't know how to drive stick or learned on this vehicle) but other than that a vehicle with 150,000+ miles on it should run fine.
It’s still exponentially hard
.
I'd support that.
Also awesome sig for the comment.
I thought that name sounded familiar. I was aware of his currency which given its dates and fairly wide acceptance in the SF area at the time was a historical curiosity since confederate and union currency also circulated at that time but his currency was never discounted compared to gold unlike either of the others. My particular section of the numismatist world is odd paper currency (I have lots of historical curiosities that I have collected mostly invasion or war time currencies) and really wish I could afford one of his "Imperial Government of Norton I" bills but they are a bit hard to come by anyway (I would be in a lot of trouble with the wife if I bought one).
Yes it is a very weak correlation but it appears more asymptotic instead of linear to me anyway. Man I need to start gaming the system so I can be a presidential contender the next time around.
I am not sure I want the media to waste more time reporting on random crap on twitter. The few times I have watched TV news they like to spew lots of crap from their twitter feed up there now. It would be nice if they just went to the facts instead.
Your points on ignoring Paul during the GOP primaries was well noted. I noticed the same thing such as the radio news would mention every other candidate but him and would never report on percentages he got while mentioning every other candidate. At least if Paul had been the nomination the GOP would of had an engaging passionate candidate. Romney seemed like the GOP's version Al Gore in that regards.
You aren't far off with the concept of full treatment cost. Joking aside insurance only pays a certain percentage for specific procedures on top of that there are deductibles and co-pays. Toss in they byzantine layering and billing and it becomes an absolute mess that is never as simple or clear as it initially appears or should be. Those items are typically considered out of pocket expenses in the US.
While our military spending is rather excessive I get the impression that Europe rather enjoys our spending on our military as it means they get to spend less on their militaries and enjoy the influx of US dollars into their countries. As a side bonus they get to divert those funds they would have to spend on their own defense elsewhere and can point out how much less they spend on defense than the US. Personally I would love to see us bring all of our troops home starting with Europe, the middle east, and South America as those are the easiest to unwind. There are a few instance that will take a bit more to unwind like active ares (Afghanistan, South Korea, Africa) but I would love to see us out of every country that isn't the US or its territories within the next 4 years. The only other issue I see is with keeping shipping lanes open and free of piracy which the US Navy puts a lot of effort into doing which seems to be a valid function but other countries should be stepping up to the plate more with this as well.