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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama: ...the defense budget will...be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/01/12-9<edit>
The actual Pentagon planning document, released the day of the presidents Pentagon appearance, might as well have been written in cuneiform script or hieroglyphics. Just about any military future might have been read into or out of its purposely foggy, not to say impenetrable, pages. That, too, seemed politically canny, offering the president a militarized version of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too-ism.
While the document only referred to the Pentagon budget-cutting process that had been making headlines for weeks in the most oblique manner, the briefings offered by the president, the secretary of defense, and other top officials highlighted those cuts: $487 billion over the next decade. It was the sort of thing that should have made any deficit hawks heart flutter. Yet somehow -- a bow to defense hawks? -- the same budget, already humongous from an unprecedented 12 straight years of expansion, was, Obama assured his audience, actually slated to keep on growing.
Like a magician pulling the proverbial rabbit from the hat, the president described the situation this way: Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow, because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership. In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration.
This magic trick was only possible because those headlined cuts were to come largely from the Pentagons projected defense spending. Youll get the idea if you imagine an obese foodie announcing that hes going to diet by cutting back on his dreams of future feasts, even as he modestly increases his actual caloric intake.
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peacebird
(14,195 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Thank God that we're protected from tanks rolling across the German border.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)And replace drones that blow up god knows who.
That stuff is expensive.
babylonsister
(171,091 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
TransitJohn
(6,932 posts)n/t
ProSense
(116,464 posts)"Obama: ...the defense budget will...be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration"
...right. A base budget of more than $500 billion will climb to more than Bush's base budget. There needs to be deeper cuts along the lines of what Barney Frank proposed.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002155700
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Elizabeth... I'm coming home...
Magoo48
(4,720 posts)neglecting our own national needs. Maintaining the empire is bleeding us dry here at home.
think
(11,641 posts)White House, Congress Cut Heating Assistance to 1 Million Homes
January 9, 2012 by Yvette Carnell
In many parts of the U.S., its been a warmer than average winter thus far, and considering that the government is cutting heating assistance to over 1 million homes, we should all thank mother nature.
Congress and the White House agreed to cut the Low Income House Energy Assistance Program (LHEAP) by 25 percent, or in human terms, cut assistance to 1 million homes. Households qualify for the program if their income is at or below 150 percent of the poverty level or 60 percent of their states median income....
http://www.yourblackworld.com/2012/01/09/white-house-congress-cut-heating-assistance-to-1-million-homes/
Karmadillo
(9,253 posts)think
(11,641 posts)I just can't seem to remember which patriotic oil company it is that loves the American people enough to be so generous and help in our country's time of need. I should remember since the company will be providing free heating oil to 500,000 Americans that might have had to go without heating oil if it were not for the help of this patriotic company.
Let me see was it Exxon-Mobil. NO. Maybe it was Texico. NO
Was it Koch Industries!? LOL. No, no, no. I must have been out of my mind to even consider that! How un-American that would be of them!
Now I'm all confused. Oh ya! It was that rat bastard commy Hugo's oil company Citgo that is coming to the aid of the American poor. The utter audacity of this guy!:
CITGO sign of exploitation
CITGO is again working the tanker hoses and valves on television on behalf of his Citizens Energy Corporation and on behalf of CITGO, the petroleum monopoly of the Venezuelan government, and its authoritarian, anti-American leader Hugo Chávez.....
...Obviously, the oil Kennedys Citizens Energy Corp. receives comes not from the Venezuelan people but from Chávez, who must derive great, if perverse, satisfaction from coming to the aid of the Yanqui devils poor at the same time making points for his CITGO operation....
Full article:
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20220113citgo_sign_of_exploitation/
Thank goodness the Boston Herald is willing to call out this vicious ploy by Chavez. How dare he help out our poor! Next thing you now he'll be trying to help all the poor. What a sadistic unmoral and uncivilized cretin he is!
He should be more like American oil companies and screw the American people if he wants to be a true friend and patriot! Thank goodness the MSM isn't allowing the commie any coverage so he won't get away with this.
Ironically I can't find any American news agency covering this covert terror plot to seduce Americans to the dark side so I must use Russian TV propaganda to expose Chavez for the dirty oil giving bastard he is:
Hugo Chavez: Warming Americans hearts
Published: 10 January, 2012, 10:32
Hugo Chavez is one of leaders Washington most likes to paint as an enemy of America, but contrary to this logic, there are thousands in the US who have warm feelings for the flamboyant Venezuelan leader.
A winters morning in South Bronx, New York City. Outdoors the temperature is near freezing. Indoors, 77-year-old Alice Maiotis is bundled up, brewing a pot of coffee and raising the heat enough to take the chill out of the air. The retired grandmother of seven lives alone on a fixed income and each winter, as federal programs continue to be slashed, the struggle to afford warm comfort gets harder.
I go around screaming and yelling, the elderly lady says. All they do is raise, raise, raise, raise and it is the same dollar you are getting, so how far can you push it? A hundred and fifty gallons of oil is right now about close to $600.
However, Venezuela has been stepping in to make Alices life a bit easier by delivering 100 gallons of free heating oil each winter. She is a four-year beneficiary of the Citgo-Venezuela heating oil program, which provides free heating oil to 500,000 poor Americans living in low-income neighborhoods and shelters throughout the country.
President Hugo Chavez, often demonized by Washington, helped launch the program in 2005, following hurricanes Katrina and Rita. ....
Full article:
http://rt.com/news/hugo-chavez-charity-venezuela-435/
Thank goodness we live in the land of the free and not some communist country where we'd never hear about this kind of aggression!
In all seriousness I don't consider Hugo's leadership in Venezuela exceptional by any means and I'm not a fan of a socialistic societal model like the one under his leadership. But if I had the chance to meet the ex-head of BP, Tony Hayward, or Hugo I'd chose to meet the true humanitarian out of the two...
Magoo48
(4,720 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)Whoa, did I type that? What I meant to type was "Expected".
MisterP
(23,730 posts)next up y'all'll be telling me Jonestown's revolutionary suicide didn't put an end to racism and Kim Jong-un doesn't make the sun rise!
msongs
(67,441 posts)DCBob
(24,689 posts)Which could not be further from the truth.
kentuck
(111,110 posts)Or complaining?
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)on the Defense Dept cuts.
Also Obama is really telling the truth the
military budget will not grow like it has over the years but IT WON'T BE CUT like it should.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow, but the fact of the matter is this: It will still grow, because we have global responsibilities that demand our leadership. In fact, the defense budget will still be larger than it was toward the end of the Bush administration.
This magic trick was only possible because those headlined cuts were to come largely from the Pentagons projected defense spending. Youll get the idea if you imagine an obese foodie announcing that hes going to diet by cutting back on his dreams of future feasts, even as he modestly increases his actual caloric intake.
Like I said its a shell game when it comes
to defense cuts.
think
(11,641 posts)KharmaTrain
(31,706 posts)This administration is very concerned about those unemployment numbers. The corporate media constantly reminds us of how difficult it will be for this President to be re-elected if unemployment remains over 9%. The military has been a haven for many during these tough times. A shame they have to resort to the military but there they are and the promises in the private sector aren't very good. Keeping the miiltary bloated keeps those unemployment figures from running higher.
Hate the military as you may but it's currently putting food on the table for millions...including many outside the military (not just the mercenaries) but thousands of businesses that provide services internationally and stateside to the military. The biggest problem this country has had over the past 75 years since we became the "arsenal of Democracy" that became the MIC is to turn swords into ploughshares...
T S Justly
(884 posts)Bandit
(21,475 posts)Whooopee ain't we something.......
inna
(8,809 posts)bvar22
(39,909 posts)Is there anybody out there saying that we NEED to CUT Military Spending?
You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
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