While Congress and the White House are rolling back on environmental protections and social programs, it will spend an estimated $750 million in 2011 on Libya.
The figures were obtained by the Financial Times though Secretary of Defense Gates will only give the figures as “somewhere in the ball park of $750 million.” Notably, the Obama Administration has not only chosen not to seek authority for the war from Congress but has yet to ask for approval of such spending. There is so much uncommitted money in the Defense budget that the President can prosecute a war without a single appropriation from Congress. It would be a perfect nightmare for the Framers.
Source: FT
Military spending whats good for you….
Swarthmore mom, are you saying this because most Republicans are not pro-choice?
I’m very much pro-choice, but I think we need to examine all the actions of pro-choice politicians, and not just their support for reproductive rights.
It raises the question: How much more is the life of an American woman worth (and how many would die if Roe v. Wade was overturned, and a few states outlawed the procedure?) than the life of a woman (or child) in Afghanistan or Yemen?
Again, the message is, if Democrats support policies which might possibly save the lives of some American women who have illegal abortions, they don’t care that the same Democrats are supporting and implementing policies which definitely and demonstrably are blowing to bits and burning alive hundreds of innocent men, women, and children overseas.
In other words, if you do great evil, we will still lend you our support, so long as you act in our interests. I just don’t get it. It doesn’t seem like a liberal attitude, in that it’s so cynical, self-serving, and devoid of compassion.
Republicans are deadly for women, Les. That is why women are much more likely to vote for a democrat.
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Swarthmore mom,
I suppose your point is that “Republicans are worse.”
This is probably true, though please note:
http://jonathanturley.org/2011/06/02/timber-obama-reverses-himself-on-protecting-millions-of-acres-of-wildness-in-new-concession-to-developers-and-drillers/
while
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13300363/ns/us_news-environment/t/bush-creates-worlds-biggest-ocean-preserve/
…so things aren’t quite as cut and dry in the realm of environmental protection.
Still, it’s ultimately meaningless. Democrats and Republicans have worked very hard to make it much more difficult to run for office as an independent. That means that Democrats can wage illegal wars, kill hundreds of innocent men, women, and children abroad, oppose medical marijuana for the sick and dying, oppose gay marriage, prosecute government whistle-blowers at the highest rate in decades while ignoring the crimes of the previous Republican administration, increase state secrets, deny due process to terror suspects, support indefinite detention and targeted assassinations of U.S. citizens, and still count on getting voted into office because they support medicare and medicaid and abortion rights.
So, basically, Democratic loyalists are saying, “We don’t care if you destroy the lives of innocent foreigners and principled whistle-blowers, while denying equal rights to homosexuals, and fighting to prevent sick and dying people from using medical marijuana, and denying due process to thousands of suspects in secret prisons, so long as you support social programs and say you’ll protect the U.S. environment, you have our vote.”
And as long as this is the case, the conservatives win, no matter who’s in office.
http://boehnersamerica.org/ It is John Boehner, the house republican majority leader, that wants to end a woman’s right to choose. Bring back Pelosi and the progressive democrats.
http://www.sba-list.org/newsroom/news/bloomberg-war-women-2012-democrat-rallying-cry Republicans have declared war on women. Women’s groups will endorse democrats early on.
“That mission will continue until people wake up and peacefully stop it or it will end with the US economy broken beyond repair. This isn’t about party, it’s about the very foundation of who we are as a nation. It is about the welfare of the common people.” -Jill
Jill,
As you rightly say, we need to wake up… and quickly…
Swarthmore mom
1, June 10, 2011 at 9:15 am
The republicans that are anti-war like Ron Paul also want to shred social security, medicare, and every social and environmental program in existence.
—————————————————————
But they don’t want to shred those social programs to stop wars … having scalped so many young people of their savings through mortgage scams, they are now looking for other cash cows and Social Security/Medicare has a huge amount of money constantly coming in from paychecks across the land. Wall Street/Insurance Companies/Banks want that money … republicans are trying to find a way to give it to them.
This war is illegal on every front. The congress has completely abdicated its lawful role to the executive. Many of our citizens do not understand how dangerous it is to have an unchecked executive. We aren’t going to leave Iraq or Afghanistan (see Petraeus and Gates on that), we have a secret war going on in Yemen and we have troops on the ground in Libya. Further, we have a mercenary force that outnumbers our regular army 2:1. So the question isn’t about what would Republicans do with the money. We already know the answer to that question. In fact, we already know what Democrats will do with the money, which is nearly identical to what Republicans will do with it.
The actual issue that must be confronted is the illegal executive powers that were claimed under Bush and are now being expanded under Obama and will be further expanded under whoever is president in 2012 (including if that’s Obama). People need to understand and take this very seriously.
It should be fairly obvious that the US in on a mission of empire resulting in a complete transfer of wealth from the many to the few. That mission will continue until people wake up and peacefully stop it or it will end with the US economy broken beyond repair. This isn’t about party, it’s about the very foundation of who we are as a nation. It is about the welfare of the common people.
When will the “wise old men” of American foreign policy realize the stupidity of their
desire for empire and Pax Americana? When it stops being profitable for their real constituency…………. or realistically never.
Paul Ryan wants to cut 6 trillion. All the cuts come from non-military items.
http://www.alternet.org/story/151209/the_gop%27s_cia_playbook%3A_destabilize_country_to_sweep_back_into_power?page=entire
Yet another example of the presence of a insanely large military establishment being used on easy targets with contradictory rationales.
Frank is absolutely correct that our defense spending is out of control, both the spending on the current military establishment/operations and the long-term support for all the injured vets that we are creating.
I read somewhere that the longterm costs of the Civil War was larger than the actual operations during 1861-65. I can only imagine what 10+ years of continual operations are going to leave us.
In this context the phrase “somewhere in the ball park” means that our policy in Libya is way out in left field in a very large ball park.
The republicans that are anti-war like Ron Paul also want to shred social security, medicare, and every social and environmental program in existence.
In amongst the economic Titanic that Pawlenty outlined the other day was the statement that we would not cut defense spending a penny. Not that the Democrats are offering any real cuts but the sheer stupidity of us spending more than the entire rest of the world combined is stunning.
While it might be a waste of money, the republican house is not going to spend a dime on social programs or the environment.
Ooooo. Expensive and unconstitutional. Yum yum.