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Surprise! $29.4B In Pentagon Pork Tucked Into GOP Relief Bill |
2020-08-03 |
[American Conservative] Senate Republicans unveiled Monday their $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. Tucked inside is a $29.4 billion request for new defense spending, over $8 billion of which is for defense procurement and acquisition. Critics point out that the bill does not delineate any new or urgent defense threat to justify the $30 billion request over and above the Pentagon’s ask. Instead, the bill requests millions in new spending for things like missile defense money and F-35’s. Here’s some of what Congress wants to spend money on: $1,068,000,000 for additional Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft "As you know, fighter jets are well known for their pandemic fighting abilities," wrote Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War. In order to claim that each item in the bill is requested in response to the coronavirus, the bill labels them: 1. “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, and 2. "designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985." ’But the fact that the Pentagon would have two years to spend these new funds undercuts the argument that this new request is urgent and coronavirus-related. "The greed is not pretty. The Pentagon has already had $740 billion approved for defense this year, but it and its congressional advocates can’t resist asking for more and funneling more pork to their constituents," said John Isaacs, senior fellow at Council for a Livable World & Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, in an interview with The American Conservative. "If Republicans’ sporadic concerns about deficits were real, they would view the $750 defense budget as the first place to look for cuts to partly offset the gigantic sums expended to recover from coronavirus," said Ben Friedman, policy director of Defense Priorities, to The American Conservative. "Instead, they’re using coronavirus as an excuse to shovel more money to the Pentagon, which already receives more than it did at almost point during the Cold War, for no obvious reason. They do not even bother with a security rationale for the new spending, it’s just seen as inherently good to blow money on new military hardware." There are a few items of spending that are coronavirus related: $5,300,000,000 for Coronavirus Defense Production Act purchases, $1,450,000,000 for four expeditionary medical ships, and $705,000,000 for the Defense Health program. But that is out of an almost $30 billion request. Related: Coronavirus stimulus package: 2020-05-17 New House vote-by-proxy measure sets off screaming alarms as Pelosi gobbles power Coronavirus stimulus package: 2020-04-12 First coronavirus relief checks hit Americans' bank accounts Coronavirus stimulus package: 2020-04-05 Nobody Knows How to Politicize a Pandemic Like Nancy Pelosi. |
Posted by:Besoeker |
#7 Yeah, well, wait until you see the Dem stuff. |
Posted by: KBK 2020-08-03 19:51 |
#6 #3 - and transfer them to the Army and Marines |
Posted by: Frank G 2020-08-03 11:57 |
#5 Improving employment numbers, a Trumpian Re-election Trick! Pelosi can still scratch it out. |
Posted by: Bobby 2020-08-03 11:27 |
#4 I am for most of those things, especially with a conflict with China on the near horizon. The frustrating part is the GOP has to put this in a bill to try to get the demoncrats to pass it. They would kill it otherwise. |
Posted by: DarthVader 2020-08-03 10:26 |
#3 $650,000,000 for wing replacements to the Boeing A—10 Anyone got an objection to bringing the old A10 airframes up to 0 hours of use. Just asking for some groundpounder friends. |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2020-08-03 07:42 |
#2 More productive than paying people an extra $30,000 to stay home. P.S. I know of multiple households that have two people claiming the extra unemployment benefits and one household with three (or were until July 31). Now they are pissed that "their money" has stopped. Funny how misplaced benevolence becomes an entitlement so quickly. |
Posted by: Alistaire Oppressor of the Welsh6649 2020-08-03 02:21 |
#1 The welfare-warfare state wins yet again. |
Posted by: Clem 2020-08-03 01:02 |