{"id":132984,"date":"2017-03-04T22:39:27","date_gmt":"2017-03-05T05:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/04\/because-who-needs-a-coast-guard-anyway.html"},"modified":"2017-03-04T22:39:27","modified_gmt":"2017-03-05T05:39:27","slug":"because-who-needs-a-coast-guard-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/04\/because-who-needs-a-coast-guard-anyway.html","title":{"rendered":"Because who needs a Coast Guard, anyway?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump's promise of big Defense Dept. increases seem more and more the equivalent of a rich guy's mid-life crisis, buying a really shiny, sporty car so as to impress the neighbors, not so much because it's what he really needs.<\/p>\n

How else to explain actually cutting<\/i> budget from<\/i> the Coast Guard — a key to coastal defense, drug interdiction, smuggling protection, and public safety. <\/p>\n

But it's not the kind of "big stick" that turns on chicks, amirite?<\/p>\n

Trump announced his military spending surge aboard the USS Gerald R Ford,<\/i> a shiny new carrier that's cost almost $13 billion (so far), plus $5 billion R&D. He proposes increasing the US military's budget by $54 billion. <\/p>\n

But he feels he has to cut<\/i> $1.3 billion from the Coast Guard budget (among many, many other things)?<\/p>\n

Not exactly good business sense.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nTrump’s cutting $1 billion from the Coast Guard at a time when it’s doing more than ever<\/a><\/span>
\nPresident Donald Trump’s proposed budget…\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump's promise of big Defense Dept. increases seem more and more the equivalent of a rich guy's mid-life crisis, buying a really shiny, sporty car so as to impress the neighbors, not so much because it's what he really needs. How else to explain actually cutting budget from the Coast Guard — a key to … Continue reading “Because who needs a Coast Guard, anyway?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131006,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/07\/we-must-cut-spending-except-on-military-stuff-built-in-my-district.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":0},"title":"We must cut spending! Except on military stuff built in my district!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Jul-16 12:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"When naval officers who are vested in a new program combine with defense contractors who are vested in their bottom line and congresscritters who are vested in campaign donations and bringing home the pork, the Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense are apparently helpless to stop them.'The extra ship, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":134801,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/20\/federal-government-plenty-money-things-apparently.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":1},"title":"The federal government has plenty of money for some things, apparently","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 20-Sep-17 9:55pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Congressional GOP is crying and wailing and gnashing its teeth that the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid are bankrupting the US government. But apparently there is more than enough money to not only boost US defense spending the additional $54 billion that Donald Trump asked for, but raising the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/congress-capitol.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25771,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/27\/doing-the-math-on-military-budget-cuts.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":2},"title":"Doing the math on military budget cuts","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 27-Jan-12 4:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"As noted below, it's near-useless to bandy about simple amounts of proposed defense cuts without putting them in perspective -- unless you're trying to frighten people with the \"billions and billions\" on the chopping block.In other words, $487 billion sounds like a lot (which it is), until you realize it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160950,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2026\/01\/17\/pete-hegseth-thinks-stars-and-stripes-is-too-woke.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":3},"title":"Pete Hegseth thinks Stars and Stripes is too “Woke”","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 17-Jan-26 11:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"In Trumpland, \"Independence\" is something to engrave on a wall, not actually allow for anyone.","rel":"","context":"In "Censorship"","block_context":{"text":"Censorship","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/censorship"},"img":{"alt_text":"trump cpac 2019 flag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trump-cpac-2019-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trump-cpac-2019-flag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trump-cpac-2019-flag.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/trump-cpac-2019-flag.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23490,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/05\/ever-notice-how-government-as-a-business-types-never-treat-defense-that.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":4},"title":"Ever notice how "government-as-a-business" types never treat Defense that…","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Nov-11 9:12pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Ever notice how \"government-as-a-business\" types never treat Defense that way?I mean, any executive who had such horrifically sloppy business practices would be fired by the board in a heartbeat.Or, conversely, imagine any other branch of government saying that it couldn't account for its spending without plowing in a huge amount\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41830,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/04\/27\/spending-priorities.html","url_meta":{"origin":132984,"position":5},"title":"Spending Priorities","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Apr-14 9:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"There's clearly money to spend. The question is, what do we choose to spend it on.Of course, there are any number of alternative things to spend it on, from better food or medical care for the poor to space colonization to infrastructure to nuclear aircraft carriers to simply not collecting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/IMG_8817744261186.jpeg.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}