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$ 48 FUCKING BILLION?

17:04 / 23.01.02

Is how much Bush wants to increase the US defence budget by.

From the story:

It will include salary increases for military personnel as well as money to buy the latest in precision weapons

Of course, no Republican will have any shares in those companies...

I mean, I expected that there would be a massive rise - but $48 FUCKING BILLION?

17:18 / 23.01.02

And where is he gonna find $48 Fucking Billion???

The Bush administration wants to increase spending on home security and the military, while freezing spending in most other areas. And in an election year, there will be a fierce fight with Congress in agreeing the budget. But looming over the debate is the bigger problem of the future of the US state pension system, social security...The declining surplus will increase the political temperature in Washington, erasing the consensus built up in the years of budget surplus and - perhaps - leading to a return to the partisanship of the early Clinton years.

The Dems are gonna fight it – they don't have a choice.

17:24 / 23.01.02

Should be an interesting little fight. What with the entire House up for reelection in Nov. and almost half of the Senate (I think) up for reelection.
Though, will likely get scary. With Afganistan starting to wind down, look for another invasion of some other country by summer.

"international law? what's that?"

My favorite bit from the news last night though would be Hillary Clinton calling on Cheney to release documents on his meetings with Enron. You KNOW she just loved doing that.

The Knowledge +1

09:20 / 24.01.02

What I could do with $48 billion dollars.

01

09:20 / 24.01.02

Well clearly this amount is justifiable. It's not like the country has any means to defend itself.

15:06 / 24.01.02

the size of the US military budget make me sick before all this.. so, er, SHITFUCKFUCKSHITFUCKFUCKFUCK

in short.

15:20 / 24.01.02

If we thought the American education system was fucked before...Now it won't get anything at all.

But I really feel that (between this & Enron) the tide's going to turn and people here are going to fight this bullshit.

15:29 / 24.01.02

I'd support a wage increase for military personnel because they should, in fact, be making more money. But $48 billion? That's ridiculous. That plus the $40 billion for NY relief is puuting a hell of a strain on America's budget.

16:47 / 24.01.02

quote:Originally posted by Ierne:
But I really feel that (between this & Enron) the tide's going to turn and people here are going to fight this bullshit.

We'll see. Saw a poll on the news the other day giving a number like 96% approval for invading another "terrorist" country. If it's spun as "defending america." Then it probably wouldn't hurt them to bad.

And I heard last night that Congress is worried about spending to much time on Enron. They fear a backlash like the Republicans got after the Clinton stuff. Cause you know, the two incidents are so much a like. So, I'd be surprised if Enron is in the news by Spring. And wouldn't be surprised if most had forgotten about it by election time. Plus, as I said before, look for another invasion in the late summer, which will last untill after the election. It's extremly uncommon for things to change to much when the country is "at war." If anything, it'll strengthen the Republicans.

18:39 / 24.01.02

what's been interesting, is the look of budgets in general...NPR has had some decent insights into where money is going and where taxes are having their placement. Like...

...how the budget surplus is now down 70% since the tax reform that bush has proposed went through. And now the followup is to lower taxes further while spending more. Where's this new money needed for military, etc. coming from?

My bet is not to take money from the mouth, minds, and hearts of people up front but to allow the interests of people to slide and to keep new money from being "wasted" there. Right now in the US, the tax system is backended where the rich will make out over inflation in the coming years while the tax shelters that have existed or an in place are diminishing. Actually as we speak, the government pulls a huge some of money from the middle and upper-middle class. And the costs of changing that paradigm are too high...especially since it's justifying current revenue. Uh...

The Damned Yankee

06:23 / 27.01.02

The fucking sheep can't even conceive how much $48 billion is. Bush is going to get it as long as everyone is still looking under their fucking beds for terrorists.

05:14 / 28.01.02

What would sheep care about money anyway? I suppose they could get a bigger barn or a new set of shears but, I mean come on. Have you ever seen a sheep buy anything?

The Knowledge +1

05:14 / 28.01.02

"Hello, my name is Shetland. I'd just like to say that I find Biomagnetic K9's last comment extremely offensive, and I think that his ignorant asseretion that sheep aren't able to make purchases as they please is both ill-informed and does nothing to avoid the kind of stereotypes that we sheep have had to put up with. I, personally, would love to get my hoofs of 48 billion dollars."

18:39 / 05.02.02

"President Bush waves to servicemen and their families as he visits Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle Monday while promoting his defense spending agenda."

Looks more like a "Sieg Heil"
[URL=http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/news/0560138DA89B9E7286256B57001CB79A?OpenDocument&highlight=2%2C48%2Cbillion?opendocument&headline=Bush+pushes+a+beefed-up+d efense]article[/URL]

38 Billion to Homeland Defense!

[ 05-02-2002: Message edited by: Burning Man ]

The Voice of Reason

15:08 / 06.02.02

oh well 48 billion isnt shit compared to the already 340some billion that taxpayers funnel into the worlds largest military anyway. this increase is 120% of the USA's closest competitors military budget, so that means our(i use the term loosely) military budget exceeds 7 times what our closest competitor is spending.

on top of this, it should be no surprise that such a staunch reagonite wants to build up military power; he is fulfilling a campaign promise, as well as "fighting terror"

also, This idea is being brought to you by the same people that developed the balance of power between cold-war america and russia (deemed MAD and NUT, depending on how you wanted to die)

it's funny, most of the early state constitutions offered the suggestion that a standing army in peacetime was detrimental to society.

Nationalism is the cancer of society
-Albert Einstein

[ 06-02-2002: Message edited by: The Voice of Reason ]

13:34 / 08.02.02

yes.

The Damned Yankee

12:00 / 09.02.02

It's just another example of how 9/11 saved the Bush presidency. Before the attacks, he was desperately thrashing about for an enemy to rally the people against. His relationships with China and Russia could almost amount to schoolyard shoving matches. He wanted the American people to hate someone so badly that he could justify further bloating of the defense budget.

I hate him. I fucking hate him. I hope they catch him in a White House closet with three interns and a snootful of coke.

17:40 / 09.02.02

I had a similar fantasy, until i realized it would just be spun into an opportunity for the Ameripeople to exercise "forgiveness" and magnanimousness. ("Well, the president has been under a lot of stress, fighting that war on terror all by himself...") An opportunity for america's collective consciousness to 'fess up to substance abuse and exorcise those drug demons in public spectacle, broadcast for a month on end. An excuse for greater police powers and harsher drug-use penalties.

The Damned Yankee

02:39 / 10.02.02

Argh! The Jimmy Swaggart defense! Curses!

Ah, well, maybe he'll just get hit by a bus . . .

00:38 / 11.02.02

quote:Originally posted by The Damned Yankee:
It's just another example of how 9/11 saved the Bush presidency. Before the attacks, he was desperately thrashing about for an enemy to rally the people against.

I hate to say it, but I'm still not convinced Bush wasn't behind the whole thing... well, not personally of course, unless the whole "stupidity" thing is just a mask.