President Donald Trump has agreed to a request from Defense Secretary James Mattis to propose a defense budget of $750 billion for the coming year, reports CNN.
Last week, Trump appeared to call the Defense Department budget of $716 billion "crazy" in a tweet. I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!
Note well that Trump's tweet suggests the high military budget is the result of a "major and uncontrollable Arms Race" but does not mention that the Empire has outposts throughout the world with many active military operations in regions that are none of our business.
The agreement on the $750 billion budget came out of the meeting last Tuesday, which was attended by Trump, Mattis and the chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, and Sen. James Inhofe, R-Oklahoma, according to CNN.
"The President fully supports the National Defense Strategy and continuing to rebuild the military," an administration source told CNN.. "With the help of Sen. Inhofe and Chairman Thornberry, President Trump agreed to $750 billion topline."
Notes CNN, the meeting last week came as the Trump administration floated a 5% cut to the Defense Department, reducing the defense budget from $716 billion allocated in 2019 to $700 billion in 2020 as part of a federal government-wide effort to reduce the deficit.
Welcome to Trump Budget Management : A Week After Decrying a $716 Billion Defense Budget, Trump Agrees to $750 Billion Defense Budget
| Source: | RPI/Economic Policy Journal |
| Published: | Dec 11, 2018 |
| Author: | Robert Wenzel |
| Post Date: | 2018-12-11 19:14:31 by Hondo68 |
| Views: | 1268 |
#1: Vicomte13 To: hondo68 (#0)
There is no such thing as a region that is none of our business. The whole free world, and substantial parts of the less-than-free world, and we ourselves, all benefit from the peace and stability of the world order of which we are the linchpin. The Pax Americana is real and we all benefit from it. But it does come at the price of being involved all over the globe, with allies to keep local instability and unrest from expanding into major conflagration.
We have learned the hard way, time and again, that just because you ignore the world, does not mean that the world will ignore you. Far from it! Nature abhors a vacuum, and when we stepped away from the world after World War I and left a vacuum of power, it filled up with monsters. Monsters that we could have tamed when they were small, but that we let grow and finally had to fight for our lives.
Where shall we ignore? The Middle East? And leave a whole region of the world to fall into Islamist lunacy, develop nuclear weapons and threaten our very existence? China? And allow the world's number two economy to bully all of the neighboring powers into submission? Latin America? And be overwhelmed by refugees? Where can we safely ignore? Nowhere.
Yes, leading the world is expensive. Retreating from the world and waiting for it to be burning to the ground before being dragged back into a fight against nuclear-armed foes: that's much more expensive.
Our strategy is basically correct, and we are going to need to stay the course forever to keep the world system running. Laisses-faire doesn't work in economics or world politics either. It's a lot of money. It is well spent.
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-11 19:34:10 Reply Private Reply
#2: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#0)
The $716 billion was before the Democrats started getting pissy about the wall. So Trump is now proposing $750 billion for Defense -- which includes $34 billion for the wall.
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-11 21:44:13 Reply Private Reply
#3: Hondo68 To: misterwhite, Vicomte13, World Police, Global meddling (#2)
At least the wall is a legitimate defense item. Keep that, but cut ~$500B worth of foreign interventionism.
Bring the troops home, and start defending the USA by putting them on the border.
Hondo68 posted on 2018-12-11 23:49:34 Reply Private Reply
#4: misterwhite To: hondo68 (#3)
Yeah. It's less expensive and more convenient to fight them here than over there.
misterwhite posted on 2018-12-12 09:42:04 Reply Private Reply
#5: Vicomte13 To: misterwhite (#2)
Vicomte13 posted on 2018-12-12 20:06:49 Reply Private Reply