House Weighs Millions Military Spends On Sports Sponsorships
Source: Associated Press
By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 18, 4:26 PM
WASHINGTON — Congress is wrapped around the axle over the military spending millions of dollars to sponsor NASCAR cars and other sports in a bid to boost recruiting.
Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota are pushing an amendment to cut $72.3 million from a $608 billion defense spending bill for military sponsorships. The House began debating the bill Wednesday. The two argue that in a time of growing deficits the money could be better spent elsewhere.
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Yet the two lawmakers are facing resistance from their colleagues and sports leagues.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/house-weighs-millions-military-spends-on-sports-sponsorships/2012/07/18/gJQAB1zCuW_story.html
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arcane1
(38,613 posts)I don't like spending my taxes on advertising for an organization that everyone knows exists.
Arctic Dave
(13,812 posts)I think it's already been proven these sponsorships do not signicantly aid recruiting.
end the sponsorships, and cut the bloated defense budget by 30-40 percent- invest the money
in our infrastructure
obxhead
(8,434 posts)No more "see, it's a video game" ads on TV and no more NG NASCAR. Hell I don't even want to see the fighters fly over sports events again. It's all an enormous waste of money.
It's like when a representative goes to a state fair to be seen. It's a "business trip" even though it's not really a chance to give a policy speech or inform the populace as to his actions, nor is it a chance for real feedback, to teach the politician what at least some of his constituents think.
It's PR.
It's a waste of money. But as the politician would say, it provides publicity and quite probably good will, neither of which are cheap and both of which are damned useful.
obxhead
(8,434 posts)our military?
I can think of dozens of places our tax dollars would be far more "useful."
mountain grammy
(26,646 posts)and we have to show it off. Now it's flyovers that get everyone's patriotic juices flowing, soon it will be missles on flatbeds and soldiers marching in the streets. Sound familiar? We're on a slippery slope.
PSPS
(13,614 posts)The only thing missing is the platform with the "leaders" lined up watching the procession of hardware, complete with "media speculation" as to what it means that so-and-so is standing next to so-and-so.
Our "news media" has already turned into a caricature of Soviet-era Pravda.
