"It's like the people who don't believe in free lunches believe in free wars."

[unhappycamper]

rant /on

The Reich wing talking point is 'we can't afford health care" because the Death Panel industry (Health Care Insurance companies) would go out of business.

And states are going broke because the government does not have money to bail them out.

And teachers and firemen are being laid off because the states are going broke.

And there's no money for jobs because a) we are broke or b) nobody in Treasury gives a shit.

Yet we can spend a trillion dollars a year to keep the occupations going, fund the 'Defense' black programs and fund the Department of Death 'Defense'.

Perhaps a short history lesson is in order. The military budget in 2000 was $302 billion, less than half of Obama's current military budget. We have two ongoing occupations costing us $164 billion a year that are funded as 'special appropriations' which means they are not included in the military budget.

We have $70 million dollar airplane/helicopter thingies (the Osprey), $212 million dollar (the C-17) cargo airplanes, $5.6 billion dollar Navy destroyers (the DDG-1000 series), $355 million advanced stealth fighters (the F-22) that don't like rain, $239 million dollar second-place not-ready-for-prime-time (the F-35) fighters to replace all the A-10s, F-15s, F-16s, F/A-18s that we are wearing out and a new $11.5 billion dollar Ford-class aircraft carrier in the works. Notice I did not mention the $650+ million dollar (300% over budget) LCS ships, nor the $1.2 billion LAPD ships, nor the $536 million National Security cutters (a.k.a. a Coast Guard cutter), nor the two $2.5 billion dollar submarines we build each and every year, nor the $89,000 precision guided 155 MM (the Excalibur) round, nor the $1 million dollar MRAPs. Gas costs $400 a gallon delivered in Afghanistan and we have been flying an average of 11 cargo airplanes (C-5 and C-17) a day from Charleston, SC to Afghanistan since 2001.

And we are wearing all that crap out in the sandboxes of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Our wounded soldiers and veterans must fight for every fucking thing they have earned. Shinseki is doing the best he can but he's a fighting an entrenched bureaucracy. Change is coming but how many veterans are going to die from neglect before they are taken care of? (Note: this is still happening to Vietnam veterans 34 years after that last helicopter left the Saigon embassy.)

Obama wants to add another 34,000 $1 million dollar soldiers to the meat grinder in Afghanistan. Even David Obey commented that our economic choices are America or Afghanistan. Note Obey said "America or Afghanistan" not "America and Afghanistan".

As I see that's the choice - America or Afghanistan. Do we support our Country or kill it?

I'll choose America.



Finally, a special thanks to soupkitchen for the title of this rant.

[Fumesucker]

1. All we are saying is give war a chance..

That is what the establishment chant is..

Just one little example, the A-10 which is being replaced by the F-35 cost about $9.8 million in fiscal '98 constant dollars and has an absolutely outstanding combat record.

The F-35 on the other hand is $239 million, although I'm not sure of the fiscal year of those dollars and has not proven itself at all.

[unhappycamper]

2. The F-35 has finished less than 2% of its flight tests.

And it still can't fly above 20,000 feet.

[NC_Nurse]

3. They believe a LOT of stupid things. It's like a religion.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

4. kick

for truth

[jmondine]

5. "Death Panel Industry" Excellent Framing!

I will do my part to help this catch on!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Yes, when Republicanites talk about "wasteful government spending," it's a

backdoor way to attack the social safety net, which they see as benefiting only people they despise.

But war, now there's a manly pursuit, and you get to blow up people who look like the people you despise here.

That's the mentality, I think, plus somehow, they never think of war as government spending.

[Naturyl]

8. 100% correct.

"Out of control government waste" means helping people right-wingers see as undesirable. The "waste" represents single mothers, disabled, unemployed, minorities, sick people, the poor, etc.

When it comes to war, money is no object. War is an honorable and respectable pursuit for heroes and selfless Real Americans. There's no such thing as waste if it's being spent on righteous killing.

[Uncle Joe]

7. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, unhappycamper.:thumbsup:

[Djinn]

9. if you don't bomb dirt poor farmers in mud shacks

with multimillion dollar aircraft then America looses it's 'freedom' (TM)

[Kablooie]

10. I don't want to pay to help keep your wife alive but I'll gladly pay a mint to kill foreigners.

A Republican mantra.

[Major Hogwash]

11. They'll bail out the banks, but they won't bail out the soldiers.

When they get home from Iraq or Afghanistan, what do they have to come to?
No jobs.
No loans.
No credit.
No hope.

So, many of them go right back into the freaking military.

[Last Stand]

12. Love this post. I ask these questions all the time?

When someone wants to talk about all the Welfare fraud, I mention that it only represents a minuscule fraction of the half of the budget that the military doesn't command. Then when I ask how much they think someone earns on welfare, they have no idea ($10/day). There's $12B MISSING in Iraq.

Who's playin' who?

[fascisthunter]

13. the biggest hypocrites

demanding we pay taxes and blood for wars, but we are not allowed to pool resources to take care of those who pay taxes and fight in their wars.

[treestar]

14. The right wing will go on about "proper functions of government"

Defense is one. The general welfare is not. Because the general welfare clause of the Const. does not allow spending for the general welfare. Or some such Ayn Randian bull.

We spend more money of "defense" than anything else, so drawing it down is hard, since many would be employed in those endeavors.

I still remember listening to Rush back when I could stomach it, to see what he was saying. Clinton was closing military bases and the people who lived in the towns that get puffed up by them were rabid.

[earth mom]

15. Excellent Rant! Totally Agree!

:thumbsup:

Edited to add, keep calling it the "meat grinder of Iraq". If that doesn't wake people the hell up, what will?!

May I borrow that line?