Spending irony and the House of representatives.

So good news. I was just reading Fox News' website, and in their fiscal austerity, the House of representatives apparently just approved a 649 billion dollah spending bill for defense spending for next year.

Hooray.

Well those stealth bombers aren't gonna Develop and Build themselves!

Grandma will understand.

Is this an increase on last year?

Its about the same as last year. and the year before.

In other words, republicans are saying theyre not wanting to cut a goddamn dime from defense spending.

And NO ONE will mention this on the news. Not a soul.

Keep in mind, in more fun terms. the Republicans are whining about our multitrillion dollar debt..while simulataneously approving a .6 trillion dollar defense budget that is more than the next 17 top spenders combined

edited 8th Jul '11 9:21:09 AM by Midgetsnowman

I'm well aware of the stupidity. But for most of our country (not just the right) our military is the one untouchable thing.

which is also stupid.

And of course even if we did cut the budget, they'd screw it up to prove it "failed" by cutting money from troop pay instead of from idiotic research projects that are about as feasible as weaponized bananas.

Do keep in mind that defense spending is one of the few things left where the money stays inside the U.S. (for the most part) Basically every single state is involved in weapons manufacturing to some degree or another so very few politicians will say no to their state getting X amount of money for Y.

edited 8th Jul '11 9:43:19 AM by thatguythere47

@Thatguy: and? Its still money that either has to be raised from tax revenue or borrowing, and quite a bit of it is simply wasted on ridiculous R&D projects.

His point wasn't that military spending's a good idea, but that it's a politically rewarding one so far as pork is concerned.

Nonsense, it'll be mentioned years later after there's nothing that can be done and it's blamed for leading us to the econopocalypse. I mean, if people actually prevented problems from occurring, where would our bad news come from?

I keep saying that they could delay F-22 deliveries, or mothball a carrier, or keep some old 688's afloat instead of making new boats, or something.

There are 7 carriers in various states of reserve, we don't need to put another there. Finding a way to dispose of one of the carriers that have been kept floating for a decade would be worthwhile.

The Nimitz Class are intended to have a 50-year service. There's another 15 left on the first one.

I think they're worried about turning into England.

So that's why they hate the idea of public healthcare!

And here I thought they just hated sick people.

They won't cut it from troop pay because they can't, they'll cut troop numbers.

Great way to fix unemployment, putting soldiers on the street.

We need to scale down contractors and go back to being a self-sufficient military, that's what.

edited 8th Jul '11 7:26:34 PM by Barkey

Contractors have better lobbyists.

^^ I agree Barkey. I'm all for keeping soldiers employed. I'm not for ridiculous R&D waste.

But, but... where will we get all our wonderful toys?

China. (Lead may be included.)

Nah; I don't want my stealth fighter to break on it's 3rd flight.

Budget Talks have broken down. Again.

Boehner says he's not going to even try anymore. http://j.mp/n9SNID

Whitehouse says that "We need a balanced approach that asks the very wealthiest and special interests to pay their fair share."

and The opposition to raising taxes on the wealthiest is frowned upon by 3/4 of the population: http://thkpr.gs/o6yv1N

edited 9th Jul '11 9:15:18 PM by Enkufka

I call horse shit on that poll. Screw the wealthy they need to pony up and give up their tax loop holes.

YEAH! EAT THE RICH! EAT THE RICH!! EAT THE RICH!!!