White House sends $60 billion war-funding request to Congress
Source: Reuters
The White House sent Congress a 2015 war-funding request on Thursday of nearly $60 billion, a drop of $20 billion from the current fiscal year after President Barack Obama decided to withdraw all but 9,800 troops from Afghanistan by Dec. 31.
Obama, in a letter to the House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, asked for $58.6 billion for the war in Afghanistan and other overseas military activity, the smallest Pentagon war-funding request in a decade.
In addition to funding the Afghanistan war, the request also seeks $500 million to support Syria's moderate opposition, $1.5 billion to support stability in the countries bordering Syria that have been flooded with refugees and $140 million for non-operational training in Iraq.
The administration request was about $20 billion less than the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, and $20 billion less than the $79.4 billion place-holder figure in its budget submission to Congress in February.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/26/us-usa-defense-budget-idUSKBN0F12WN20140626
olddad56
(5,732 posts)oh, we are suing fake money already, never mind.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)PumpkinAle
(1,210 posts)AngryDem001
(684 posts)daschess1987
(192 posts)A little austerity here, some corporate tax breaks there, and a laurel and hardy welcome from the people who greet us as liberators, and the whole damned thing will pay for itself. No-bid contracts to rebuild foreign infrastructures (while ours crumbles) will trickle down to the most-deserving, and private prisons will make a killing off the people who protest outside of free-speech zones (excluding health clinics for women where it's open-carry/open-season).
mother earth
(6,002 posts)voice_of_freezin
(6 posts)Travesties unequaled in my lifetime. All that death to destabilize further. I try to be upbeat and maybe even funny if I can. Can't do it on this. Peace.
840high
(17,196 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)CountAllVotes
(20,854 posts)These are indeed the true "welfare queens".
Might as well buy them a few extra tanks, Hummers, gunz, etc. etc. ad infinitum!
valerief
(53,235 posts)Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Talk about "enttitlements" for the offense budget.
They don't even try to bullshit anymore.
industry_
(33 posts)if you bothered to actually read the article, you would notice that it's a pretty massive cut in spending - $20 billion, or roughly 25%. still a large amount, yes, but a definitely a step in the right direction.
madokie
(51,076 posts)they'll be falling all over themselves to deny this request, simply because Obama wants it. Thats how this all works since January 20 of '09
unhappycamper
(60,364 posts)when you take a look at where the money's coming from:
The DoD could lose at least half of their budget and not break a sweat.
Of course we would need to rethink spending $5+ billion for a destroyer, $$16+ billion for a new aircraft carrier, $400 billion for the F-35, etc. etc. etc.
ctsnowman
(1,903 posts)now they separate out the "war" part of the MIC so that can pretend to be making massive cuts.
lsewpershad
(2,620 posts)Republicans reply "by cutting SS, Medicare and Medicaid".
benld74
(9,888 posts)Brigid
(17,621 posts)A country builds up massive military, which of course, it must use. It gets involved in useless wars, usually under false pretenses. Said wars get expensive; the people get sick of paying for them and losing their young people in them; the expense drives the country's economy into the ground; and the country and its people become impoverished, perhaps permanently. Lather, rinse, repeat. I'd say we're in Stage 4, maybe 5.