{"id":134801,"date":"2017-09-20T21:55:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-21T03:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=134801"},"modified":"2017-09-21T07:30:43","modified_gmt":"2017-09-21T13:30:43","slug":"federal-government-plenty-money-things-apparently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/09\/20\/federal-government-plenty-money-things-apparently.html","title":{"rendered":"The federal government has plenty of money for some things, apparently"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Congressional GOP is crying and wailing and gnashing its teeth that the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid are bankrupting<\/i> the US government. But apparently there is more than enough money to not only boost US defense spending the additional<\/i> $54 billion that Donald Trump asked for, but raising the pot an additional $80 billion — boosting the annual military budget to $700 billion, equal to the ten<\/i> other highest military-spending countries in the world combined.<\/i><\/p>\n

But heaven forfend we throw money around like drunken sailors (on new nuclear aircraft carriers) to help poor people get medical care. Or help people pay for college. Or actually invest in infrastructure projects. Or help the poor of our nation, or the world. Or avert climate change. Or any number of things that won’t fit a big Fourth of July parade for the President. Because, despite constant proclamations that the economy is the Biggest Economy Ever, times are tough, don’t you know, and we all need to tighten our belts.<\/p>\n

Unless they’re military belts.<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/a>
\nThe Senate\u2019s Military Spending Increase Alone Is Enough to Make Public College Free<\/a><\/span>
\nCongress is on track for an eye-popping increase in military spending.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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

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 pot an additional $80 billion … Continue reading “The federal government has plenty of money for some things, apparently”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134802,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,349,374,376],"tags":[1219,1217,1218],"class_list":["post-134801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts","category-military","category-money-politics","category-taxing-spending","tag-defense","tag-gunsandbutter","tag-military"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/congress-capitol.jpg","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":134801,"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":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":134801,"position":1},"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":43840,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/07\/25\/the-money-pit-f-35-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":134801,"position":2},"title":"The Money Pit (F-35 Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Jul-14 9:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'd really prefer not to think that the executives of Lockheed-Martin, or our Congresscritters, are willingly leaving this country vulnerable through this botched-up never-ending black hole of spending (and local employment). I'd like to think that they all believe that eventually, if enough additional money (and local employment) is thrown\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":41947,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/05\/10\/throwing-good-money-after-bad-missile-defense-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":134801,"position":3},"title":"Throwing good money after bad (Missile Defense Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 10-May-14 11:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To my mind, the only question about these non-functional anti-missile systems is why they are still being funded (not just for research, but deployment).1. Is it because they are manufactured in the districts of powerful congresscritters who want the DoD dollars to flow to their constituents?2. Is it because the\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":132174,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/07\/maybe-we-can-start-by-cutting-military-waste-to-pay-for-increasing-military-spending.html","url_meta":{"origin":134801,"position":4},"title":"Maybe we can start by cutting military waste to pay for increasing military spending","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 7-Dec-16 9:47am","format":false,"excerpt":"Trump ran on a platform of cutting government waste and, at the same time, increasing military spending. Here's how he could get $125B over the next five years, per a report that the Defense Business Board produced in 2015, and the Pentagon quashed so as not to admit that they\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":134801,"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\/134801","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134803,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134801\/revisions\/134803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}