As had been previously reported late last week, President Trump has unveiled a budget plan which, in addition to cutting social spending across the board, would seek a huge increase in military spending, centered almost entirely on war funding.
US military spending is always by far the largest on the planet, several
times the amount of the next highest spending, China. But while other
nations like China and Russia are scaling back their budgets, the
Pentagon’s budget, as ever, continues to rise.
Trump’s proposal would bring the overall defense budget for 2020 to $750
billion. This includes a $544 billion base-line defense budget, which
is not in and of itself a huge increase. But on top of that will be a nearly $100 billion in the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) Fund,
and a $9 billion “emergency” funding request meant to make up for the
money already taken from the military to build the border wall.
Using the OCO budget as an avenue for driving military spending up has
been a common tactic in recent decades, though it had fallen out of
favor in the past few years. The OCO has been heavily criticized because
its nature makes it effectively a black hole, allowing the Pentagon to
shuffle money around to different projects as it sees fit.
Exploding the OCO, nearly tripling it from the current year’s levels,
while keeping base funding roughly in line, seems meant to allow the
administration to present themselves as keeping past commitments, while
fueling a precipitous spending increase all the same.
Military spending is by far the biggest vote harvesting mechanism the Republicans have.
Pat,,Viet Nam,,brought to you by the great Demoncrat, LBJ!!
Brought to you by the MIC that existed long before LBJ.
This Country’s entire history is that of an empire. Try to keep up Jay.
Only fools believe the presidents dream up wars on their own.
dave, You are mistaken.
Smedley D. Butler
βI spent 33 years and four months in active military service and
during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man
for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a
racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and
especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped
make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to
collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central
American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify
Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in
1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American
sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American
fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that
Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might
have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate
his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.β
Without a doubt you are the very sadly mistaken one Jay.
Dave, Uh,,,what does have to do with the clear actions of the LBJ Administration to smoke Viet Nam and 60,000 plus U.S. soldiers, as well as a million or so Vietnamese? Besides, I may disagree with Butler and would have to look at the times and motivations he speaks of. He was a General, and human, I would have loved to have seen him cross examined before a Grand Jury. However it is irrelevant to the issues we discuss here. While you are at it why not bring up Col. Custer and the 7th at the LBH?? π
Nice try, the war resolution was unanimous in both parties. See Constitution.
Sullivan,,Of course both parties of Ghouls sold out their sons and their morality for this war based on lies and greed and cowardice,,I remember it very well. However the main Ghoul, LBJ and his administration, demoncrats, brought this resolution before Congress based on known lies and just pure evil motivations. Millions would die and be maimed based on lies and greed. I also blame all those Fathers, who fought in WW-2 to make the world safe from war, were so weak and stupid, to then turn around and offer up their sons in another war that was never needed and should have never been attempted. This was also a major stab in the back of those Mothers of all those soldiers who would be killed, maimed, and ruined for this gross lie and evil action. Not to even mention those million or so dead Vietnamese, GOOKS, as they were called. My blood boils.! π
US military funding is the most bloated & corrupt entitlement the world.
Such a grand peace President. And oh so much better than Hillary would have been! /s
Funny, I don’t remember Bill Clinton scrapping the INF in order to send nukes to Kiev they can point at Moscow.
They all suck. Who cares who sucks more?
While war continues, it matters who sucks right now…
chud, The big problem here is the claims that Trump is a Putin stooge and then along with the Muledeer investigation, has resulted in stopping Trump from doing what he planned, friendly relations with Russia and a big change in the funding of NATO,,as well as out of Syria and Afq. The Demoncrats and Republicrats in league with the “Deep State” have foiled Trump, who is a POTUS that lacks ballz and courage,,and I think Smartz. Just look at what ‘They’ have done to Trump’s various plans to halt illegal immigration and protect our border. The USA is close to the finish and it will be a very, very, hard landing.
We really have a strange way of having “friendly relations” with Russia. I guess selling lethal weapons to Ukraine is one way. Or maybe the deep state is making Trump sell weapons to anybody and everybody.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/u-s-increases-dominance-of-global-arms-trade
wars,,Ahh,,read what I wrote again, and try to comprehend,,my Michigan friend. To much bong last night?
“friendly relations with Russia”
What am I not comprehending.
I don’t do bongs. One hitters and edibles. Ah, euphoria.
War, this is a friendly comment. Jay’s views generally conflict with mine, but in this case he’s right. Here’s what I take to be his meaning:
When, in the early moments of the campaign, Trump said “We should get along with Russia”, butt ugly Obama/Dem CIA chief John Brennan’s brain exploded and he got on the horn to GCHQ and said “We have to take this guy down.” The spook forces marshalled — Steele, Mafsud, the Aussie Ambassador, et al — and set up Papadopolous,… and the infamous “Steele Dossier”– already generated for HRC — was deployed. The polls showed HRC was a lock, Trump was toast, and victory celebrations commenced.
Then came election night and — Holy F*ck!!! — catastrophe!! Brennan’s sphincter snapped shut with nightmares of orange jumpsuits for his treason, and the treasonous effort to depose Trump was passed on to Comey at the FBI. Comey was already ‘damaged’ by his sandbagging of the HRC investigation — having been faithful to the DOJ’s primary responsibility of shielding the ruling class from accountability — so Trump was able to dump him. But before he left, Comey prepped the ground for the appointment of the ‘special counsel’. Trump’s man Jeff Sessions turned out to not be Trump’s man at all, but rather an establishment mole, and recused himself. This left Trump stranded, the DOJ out of his control, under fire from Mueller, the effort to destroy/hobble the Trump presidency in full swing, with the Dems, the GOP old guard, the media, and the snowflake left in full-throated “Russia! Russia! Russia! Impeach! Impeach! Impeach! Burn the Witch!” mode.
To stave off the ravening mob, Trump turned to: his base, the military which he loved, the treacherous but pragmatic Israel lobby and Bibi, and those few in the GOP who would support him.
Which is the context for the problems he’s had to confront in his effort to dial down the wars and fulfill his other campaign promises. Some people think he was just a phony con man from the start, while others credit him with sincerity and think he’s done the best he could in light of the unprecedented opposition he’s faced.
YMMV.
I respect your opinion yo. I don’t agree with it but I respect it.
Because nothing says “disrupt the war party” like massively increasing war funding, right Justin?
Nothing says freedom
Like homeless people eating out of trash cans
Unless itβs in Venezuela
Trumpsters have been noticeably silent about this, as if maybe it was some great feat of Trumpian logic designed to totally befuddle both critics and supporters alike with cognitive dissonance so that they would naturally become even more strident in support of his policies… and this is a good thing! Did I get that right, Justin?
Wake up, Trumpsters, you’ve been fooled again.
Trumpsters and Obamanites are in the same category – they live in virtual reality generated by confirmation bias, dreams and wishful thinking.
Both have too big mental inertia and rigid thinking – they can’t admit of being mistaken (I voted Trump and I admit of making the wrong bet, I should stay at home), so they are endlessly collecting partial truths and overlooking the rest to pacify their ego.
To conclude. Every person of reason could see, a long time ago, that Trump is an arrogant imperialist and an interventionist, and also an integral part (or a puppet in the best case) of the deep state. And worse, he is preparing us to war.
They pick and choose wisely. Kind of hard to spin this one.
Thomas, Of course hillary would have been so much better, just look at Libya, and Syria, as well as her email crimes. You love her so!! π
When will people like you stop this stupidity?
More money to the war corporation, less money for infrastructure and the people in need.
Both parties who are bought by the corporations will vote in favor of the bill.
Hopefully infrastructure needs are plateauing and will begin a downward trend soon. Over the next 20 years or so, self-driving cars and trucks are likely to reduce the number of vehicles on the road at any given time by double digits. Maybe even high double digits.
The infrastructure needs repair regardless of the number of vehicles on the roadways. There might be less need of repair when the numbers are reduced but that doesn’t lessen the existing need for repair.
True. But as traffic needs come down, some of that infrastructure can be dismantled, abandoned or repurposed. It may be that eight lanes connecting two cities are no longer needed and four can be dispensed with, etc.
I’m not saying that infrastructure doesn’t need to be seen to. I’m saying that if current trends continue, less of it will be needed and it will be less expensive to maintain. That time isn’t here yet, but it seems to be coming.
Damn man, you type fast.
infrastructure are many things besides cars.
Yes, it is lots of things besides roads and bridges.
It’s buildings (our population is leveling off).
It’s power plants (we’re getting better at doing more with less electricity).
It’s telecommunications (we’re moving more and more off-wire).
Is all “infrastructure” going to disappear? No, of course not. But we’re going to need less of some of it, and of some other parts we’re going to require fewer moving parts, easements, etc.
To the extent that we can plan, we should probably plan for the future that’s coming rather than for the past that’s gone.
I don`t agree, infrastructure has been neglected and underfunded for decades, a lot of things and places are in very bad shape. It would take trillions. Obama promised, Trump promised….the war corporation won every time.
Thomas, I believe you are way off on your time frame, and it will make no difference to the infrastructure, one way or the other. π
https://youtu.be/VmG4nBhp6bU
The show must go on.
Dubya kept the wars off the books, but the money was still spent. Obama started to put it on the books, but not all of it.
Is this really new spending, or just budgeting for what has always been spent off budget? I suspect it is just more of the same. The numbers look it.