NY Times: Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon

These numbers are incomprehensible!

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9137

Record $622 Billion Budget Requested for the Pentagon

By David S. Cloud / New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — The Bush administration is seeking a record military budget of $622 billion for the 2008 fiscal year, Pentagon officials have said. The sum includes more than $140 billion for war-related costs.

The administration is also seeking $93 billion in the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, to pay for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, the officials said.

The requests are part of the annual budget request to Congress for all federal spending programs. The budget is to be made public on Monday, and Congress will revise it in the coming months.

Together with money for combat operations this year already approved by Congress, the new request would push spending related to Iraq and Afghanistan to $163 billion.

“It is the highest level of spending since the height of the Korean War,” said Steven Kosiak, a military budget expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a policy analysis organization here.

Mr. Kosiak said that in 1952 the United States spent the equivalent of $645 billion in today’s dollars, factoring in inflation, and that in the Korean War military spending exceeded 13 percent of the gross national product. The figure is now 4 percent.

more...

Bush says this
Controlling spending requires the government to address the growth of entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Bush said in his weekly radio address. He said spending for the programs is growing faster than inflation, faster than the U.S. economy and faster than taxpayers' ability to pay for them.

"Unless we act, we will saddle our children and grandchildren with tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded obligations," Bush said. "They will face three bad options: huge tax increases, huge budget deficits or huge and immediate cuts in benefits."

Do we see anything wrong with this picture?

in the perennial "guns or butter" debate guns win again - as always. This is unconscionable. Enriching his friends in the defense and oil industry on the backs of the elderly, disabled and working poor alone should be enough to buy Bush a one-way ticket from Washington, not to mention his myriad Constitutional nose-thumbings and the outing of a CIA operative.
When will the American people say ENOUGH, when will Congress say ENOUGH and stop this madman?
The Pentagon is a black hole, sucking in all money in it's path. It's time to end Bush's stupid war, slash Pentagon spending and start taking care of this country's citizens and infrastructure. After all, how many new and different ways do we need to kill people? :grr:
This government has gone insane. It may be time to pack up and leave because this country has SO lost it's way I think it impossible to return to the basic blueprint of freedom and equality our founding fathers intended.
I just want to break shit right now, I'm furious. How could an imbecile like Bush ever gain the lofty position of President of what once was the greatest country on earth? :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

“War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.

I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.

There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.

It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.

- Smedley Darlington Butler

Bush took office. When he was took office the
COD was $6.3 Trillion. The ceiling was raised
to $8 Trillion and then again to $9 Trillion.

Right now the COD is $8.3 Trillion. With just
the Pentagon Budget alone you are over $9 Trillion.

Look forward next year to a raising of the debt ceiling
to a cool $10 Trillion. How many foreign lenders are going
to line up to buy that kind of debt?

Fund the safe return of our troops and NOTHING else!

because the thing that matters most to them in keeping their job, and they know they'll be accused of hating the military by refusing to fund this insane amount. It's a form of financial cowardice on the part of most the elected officials. Their want to keep the cushy job is priority over the needs of America.

..and that would be true.

so * is saying ... "Fuck You" to the poor, the elderly, the sick, the needy, and anyone else in America ... because his rich buddies are not making enough money from the Iraq disaster.

If they had it ALL, they would still not be happy.

bastards

They do and they are not....

I think we need to cull out congress some more!

We didn't clean them out good enough.

If DC Dems dont grow a spine - we are screwed again!

The public stated their choice this November.

And we can start w/some of the 'really big guns' too. "Magic bullet" Spector comes to mind (just for that ALONE he shouldn't be in Congress anymore)! Covering up the murder of a President......*SHEESH*

Cornyn.....just for blantant stupidity is another (not a 'big gun though).......

There are several others that OBVIOUSLY should 'go'

Here is proof that we need to not only bring in more democrats, but need to remove Democrats that are more invested in the status quo than standing for the people.
DU'rs that support the media darlings wake up!

...after the Cold War ended, did we...

to rail against and spend it's dwindling resources on. Our government must have an enemy at all times to keep it's citizens under control and divert the lion's share of it's riches to it's corporate overlords. Orwell was a visionary beyond compare.
A revolution is necessary since change will never come through normal political channels. Sad but true. This country is fucked.

Congress should offer that peckerwood $200B and tell him to go fuck himself if that's not enough!!!

I'm sick and tired of being the nastiest bully on the block...

that they're trying to bankrupt the country. Poor countries are a lot easier to control, especially when that country went poor funding it's military :-/

We have such a damn hardon for war.

why Bush thinks funding for weapons is more important than funding for medecine, for his own citizens no less. Violent death in Iraq, preventable death at home, and this man believes he's a man of God?

Those touchy-feely social programs don't make any $$$ for the military-industrial complex.

Welcome to DU!

They don't care!
They don't give a shit if they bankrupt the rest of us!
They don't give a damn how long it will take to pay off their wars!

Wake up, people, it was about the money, the oil, the greed - not the WMD's!

After all, thats the only reason they need all this money.

and IEDs are kicking our asses. What good is all this supposed military superiority? :wtf: No, we need to spend MORE and MORE each year to devise new and better ways to kill people we don't like. This is insanity! :mad:

That's the real horror. All this money down a black hole and what do we have to show for it?

This is the stupidest country in the history of the world, because he will still get his war money.

We are paying for this shit....while others are making big ass money! :mad:

"I think General Eisenhower was exactly right. I think we should be concerned about the military industrial complex. I think if you look at where the country is today, you've consolidated all these defense firms into a few large firms, like Halliburton, with contacts and contracts at the highest level of government.

I'd like to see us create a different complex, and I'm going to be talking about foreign policy in a major speech tomorrow, but we need to create an agency that is not about waging war, but about creating the conditions for Peace around the world. We need some people who will be advocates for Peace, advocates for economic development not just advocates for better weapons systems. So we need to create countervailing power to the military industrial complex."--Wes Clark
http://www.nhpr.org/node/5339

Clark: Don't spare Pentagon
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/25/elec04.prez.debate/
"We're faced with a very serious deficit problem. We need to keep the--we need to go back to the top 2 percent and repeal those tax cuts. We need to put all the government spending programs on the table, including the military programs.

We need to cut defense spending and put a symbolic steak through the heart of the MIC.

when congress decides to cut so much as a dime from this 'budget' watch a roveian plan go into action.

Family of four? You just borrowed an additional $8,000 on your family credit card. Lucky you.

Pay it back? Not at all. You just leave a worse life than you had to your kids. Hey, why else have them?

They get to pay back twice what you got this year. (Remember, that's just THIS YEAR.) And, if inflation rises, EVEN MORE than double. An even worse life for them. That'll teach 'em for acting up at the restaurant you used to be able to afford.

Hey! That means... you get to pass off the bad times to .. SOMEONE ELSE'S KIDS.

Smart move.

We are beholden to another COuntry now, a country that has dismal human rights records. But BUSH and his pals are financing more death and destruction by selling off America.

Jeepers, Bush dad was the first ambassador to China after it opened to us.
Poppy's brother helped them with their satellite program. Not giving them any secrets! (Wink wink nudge nudge.)
When we found out they had secrets, WE BLAMED IT ON CLINTON! (But, the BFEE walked away with the money. )

NOT that RepubliCONs would sell out our nation.
They don't really sell out to bad things like:
Cigarette companies killing us, oil companies killing the world, selling God out from under the religious,
.. well maybe.

But, they don't really believe that free market, everyone for himself stuff FOR THE WORLD, just for our country, ... right? just our countrymen. right! right.

They wouldn't free market us to the Chinese, bankrupt our nation, and send all our military forces to the Middle East. Naw. Tell me they wouldn't, before they send you your talking-on-point check. .. please.

You know it when you see it, and I see it here.

Bush chose this war. Iraq was not a threat to the U.S. The country had been under sanctions for I think 13 years. During that time there was bombing happening in the northern and southern no-fly zones. The country was unable to get a plane off the ground, unable to import any weapons.

Bush chose to wage war on Iraq because it was a vulnerable country and because he and cheney/halliburton, oil companies et al could see vast war profiting.

The terribly wrong thing is that the tax payers are footing the bill while Bush gave his wealthy friends tax cuts. NOW HE BLAMES THE POOR, DISABLED AND ELDERLY FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE!

He lied to start this war it is time to impeach him.

Thy name is Carlyle.
And isn't this the same mentality that brought down the Soviet Union as they had no resources for anything else?

One world (totalitarian) government. I used to think the people who were worried about that were batshit crazy. Now I'm not at all sure. Not all of this can be accidental or chalked up to mere incompetence.

That's right. $2.3 TRILLION has gone missing from the Pentagon budget in the past 25 years.

There's either monumental embezzlement going on (not hard to believe with this crew) or black ops on a scale that would go even farther in explaining why the U.S. has a bad reputation around the world (equally believable).

A trillion here a trillion there, before you know it you're spending real money. The unofficial republican fiscal policy is, and has been since Reagan, borrow and embezzle.

another couple million and we'll throw a party for them.

than siphoning some of this $$$ off for themselves, much like a mafioso would do. It's easy $$ for a conservative sucking off the teat of government.

Many of you would be too young to remember Nam. Nam was a complete failure; so much so that every standard of morality was broken and abused. It was pathetic, there was nobody in charge, it was every man for himself. Corruption was rife and in control. Americans were killing at will, nobody cared; rather, it was expected. On the other hand Americans were dying 100 a month, 100 hundred a week, 100 hundred a day. Lying about death totals was very common, it didn't matter to the generals. All that mattered was keeping the war going. It was the business of war. Tens of thousands of us dodged the draft; we willfully chose the life of a felony criminal to avoid going to Vietnam. After 10 years and 56,000 dead soldiers, the U.S. retreated from Vietnam - it didn't take us two weeks to completely evacuate.

The last few days were chaotic mayhem of historic proportions, a sight that will stick with many of us forever. We left hundreds of MIA's behind. It was the sickest situation America ever experienced or created.

Today we are looking at the same sort of thing in Iraq. Although our casualties are much lower, largely due to technology, we will see and feel a much greater blow back from the walking wounded, and the gross genocide of Iraqi civilians, mislabeled as collateral damage. Our penalty for all this is the trillions ill-spent on the business of war, like Viet Nam and Iraq. With signs of global warming speeding toward the finish line of life, we will utterly regret these days we live in now. Humanity will literally be forced into reliving the Dark Ages.

and unfortunately I think you are on target

Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid Stupid !!

What a waste. Forget about going to the stars. We are still practicing human sacrifices.

That stuff was always done in an "emergency" supplemental budget bill. I guess the Repubs would wakeup, stumble into the bathroom to piss, and go "Oh. My. God! We're still in Iraq and Afghanistan!!!!"

That is why the deficit isn't as big as it's going to be. Somehow the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan aren't included in that number.

:eyes:

People are living on the streets in greater numbers, schools are struggling, seniors are cutting pills in half to survive, social services are being cut, more and more people are chronically unemployed.. or underemployed, but all we see is BILLIONS for DEATH AND WAR!

WE dont' fucking NEED any more DEATH AND WAR. WE need JOBS, and DECENT SCHOOLS, and FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY, and even just the FUCKING chance to MAKE IT IN AMERICA.

Not more fucking weapons and destruction.

Can we impeach those Mofos NOW???

Industrial Military Complex?
A Corportocracy?
An Oligarchical Feudalistic system?

Yes, yes, yes.

In a short word, a Fascist society.

Get used to it America.
This IS what we have allowed to arise over the last 40 years.
This IS what we are up against IF we want to reclaim our America.

Safest thing you can do is gimme your wallet.

And worse off, our system of government will be effectively useless against anything this maniac does, because it will mean that the Democrats that currently control both houses, gave in.

...First, most of the newly retired military "experts" are saying that this $140 billion for 2008 is WAY to LOW! Expect the final cost for 2008 to be nearly double that after the inevitable "emergency spending requests" hit.

Why, well first of all the Bush Cabal LIES about EVERYTHING! Remember the how * forgot to mention the 20,000 to 28,000 Support Troops that would also need to be sent with the 20,000 "surge" Troops?

AND, do you figure the cost of replacement Tanks, HUMVEEs, Striker, and Bradly Fighting vehicles are figured into these numbers? I don't.

AND, you know how the Bush Cabal keep saying they have "equipped" the Iraqi Army? Well the haven't. They've given them about 600 HUMVEEs and some small Arms (AK-47s), but they are far from "fully equipped" with new Tanks and Trucks and Fighter Jets, and Cargo transport trucks and planes, which are all going to cost us in the end.

AND also remember that everyone (except the corporations that make up the Military Industrial Complex) has been screaming for years about how underfunded they have become under the Republican mismanagement of their budgets (V.A, National Guard, etc.),so those problems will probably drive up the cost too.

This is just the beginning for this fiasco.

We need some spines to do that. Feingold, Kucinich, who else? They will hopefully fall in line, because it's that important.

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:eyes:

Seek therapy.