The $1.3 TRILLION gorilla in the room....

There were undoubtedly some porkbarrelings' in the spending bill to go bonkers over. But what about the Big Picture?

Oh that's right, we're supposed to just focus in on the drama around the politicians squabbling over the last of our table scraps. When "table scraps" are the future they have us set to expect to live off of by the look of it.

So it would seem the real elephant er gorilla in the room would be the historically unprecedented National Debt situation.

www.usdebtclock.org...

I advise you all open that link and just watch it roll for a good 20 minutes, to have your mind blown.

But in case that doesnt stub your toe, let us consider where the money is going....

$700 MILLION dollars for the Global Military Empire.

Arent we supposed to be against globalism, now?

Explain this one to me, please, anybody.

Arent "conservatives" supposed to be about maintaining a tight budget?

Or are they, the "Republican's" (fake conservatives), the same as the "Democrat's" (fake liberals), once we scrape away abortion, firearms drama, and of course identity politics (institutionalized racism / bigotry)???

So perhaps where the biggest chunk of that "change" is going is the gorilla in the room?

Or is it the lack of change Trump signing this monstrosity really means?

Perhaps if somebody could explain why "we" NEED to spend over $700BILLION on military (imperialism) BS, that would help. Extra points if you can manage it considering "our" military imperialism is well established as creating the hatred that results in creating the "enemies" "we" "need" to be prepared for "defending" against. You'll totally get brownie points if you can make that equation totally make sense.

Actually what I find the most astounding of all, is that in less than 2 years ago, the very people who approved this monstrosity, were screaming that we needed to cut the debt, to not spend as much and in short make everything was paid for. How those same people, turned around now and it is spend baby spend.

It appears as though the wheel has turned and the ones that are wanting to be more fiscally responsible are the other guys.

In the 60s and 70s and 80s , real liberals fought against the ever increasing military budget. Then they were lulled by Pretty Boy Billy and the Missus who though decrying the military industrial complex, embraced it like a lost lover.

Trump has no problems increasing the Military budget, but when it come social programs the American people need to survive, "We need to make cuts to all social programs". Let's give Corporations huge tax brake while not doing a damn thing about all the tax loopholes they exploit to not pay anything in Federal taxes.

The sad part is we the American people continue to let them do this crap to us. Are we ever going to grow a backbone and say enough is enough. I doubt i will see that day in my lifetime.

We will never pay this off...we may never even get it to balance and stop growing.

The military gave the economy a super boom in the 40s...thats when government came up with the idea that military spending = boom economy.
but that was then, this is now.
Seems the US forgot the reasoning for the bloated military back then when it was semi low tech with steelworker jobs and all sorts..now its just high tech, not a big job creator, highly expensive, and unnecessary for todays landscape...its just a money pit where we borrow money to literally toss in a well with no water.

Wouldn't it be great if we cut the spending to 10% of what it is now, then used that other 90% for something ambitious that would pay off...perhaps a space elevator on the moon or evacuated tube transport system that runs from coast to coast...some new thing that would explode commerce.

But naa...better to make a few hundred more M1A1 Abrahms tanks to sit in a field and collect dust...just in case China decides to take over America or the mole men come from hollow earth to invade...whatever nonsense scenario the brass thinks is justifiable in having such crap.

the military industrial complex is like a massive black hole, sucking in all the wealth it can get its hands on

watching the president talk about nothing but military spending, and basically suggesting that everything else is garbage and needs to be reduced, made me wonder - does that kind of rhetoric really fly anymore? I mean do people not realize that all that other "garbage" are the things that are needed for a functioning society?

a reply to: njord

There are loads of people that deny that the MIC even exists.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Looking at debt clocks without knowing where the debt comes from is like looking through a window painted black. You don't see much.

A lot of the debt in this country is good debt.

Good debt you say?

Well yea, if someone bought a $500,000 house and has paid half of it off and is making regular payments, that is good debt. That is also debt figured into the $21trillion figure.

It's an absolute disgrace, an affront to sanity, and a verification that it's dangerous to trust ANYONE in Washington DC.

This is not what I voted for when Trump was elected. I feel like a cop watching a magician saw a woman in half... she's in two pieces, her screams have stopped, she's gone limp, there's red stuff leaking out of the box, and I got my handcuffs out. Somebody better fix this fast, or I'm going to be looking real damn hard at anyone from my state who voted for it this year, and just as damn hard at Trump two years from now.

Anyone else who is tired of being shafted, I challenge you to do what I am going to do: find out which of your Congressmen voted for this monstrosity, and vote them out at the first opportunity. I don't care if they're Democrat or Republican, and if you do, you're part of the problem... just take what your masters allow you to have and quit complaining.

And I am going to keep mentioning this until people get it: the Democrats in Congress were so upset over the DACA situation, they shut the government down over it when it wasn't even coming up for a vote! But they "got everything they wanted" in a $1.3 TRILLION Omnibus Bill, and yet nowhere in the 2000+ pages does it even mention DACA. I guess that proves they do not want to help DACA recipients, and shut the government down for pure spite and nothing else.

I blame Congress... ALL of Congress... but dammit, Trump, where's that masterful dealing you promised? This ain't it. Shape up or I'll ship you out in 2020.

TheRedneck

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

Earmarks, or "pork barreling" as you call it, were made illegal in 2011, after Democrats screwed America by attaching hundreds of millions of dollars in earmarks, to the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) legislation.

But, President Trump wants to bring them back, and Congress was (is?) considering it.

"Maybe you should start thinking about going back to a form of earmarks," Trump said, laying out a familiar — but hotly contested — argument that when earmarks were in fashion, Washington worked better. "Maybe that brings people together. In our system right now, the way it is set up, will never bring people together."

More at: www.npr.org...

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

I've been wondering the same thing.

Why are "concervatives" OK with the military budget if it hasn't been efficient/effective?

Failed wars, lost soldiers, and failed projection of American ideals. (assuming it's freedom and God given rights)

Even worse, the left doesn't even argue against it. The majority of the nation supports the hemorrhaging of money and lives.

Is it TRUE that the $1.3 Trillion will be redistributed (aka SPENT) by the end of September, and a new Spending bill will need to be ready to go by 9.30.2018, to avoid a government shut-down again?

Since Congress works only 138 days a year, it's insane that 50% of those 138 days are consumed by budget crafting and horse-trading.

a reply to: CriticalStinker


Waste and fraud are rampant in all of the big government programs. The bigger the program, the harder it is to catch.

For example, take Medicaid. Over $500 Million in fraudulent billing by medical providers was discovered. It is currently being recovered from the physician and hospital scammers. That $500 million is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Health and Human Services.

a reply to: SaturnFX
omg, I just stared one of your posts. Will wonders never?

originally posted by: TheRedneck
It's an absolute disgrace, an affront to sanity, and a verification that it's dangerous to trust ANYONE in Washington DC.

This is not what I voted for when Trump was elected. I feel like a cop watching a magician saw a woman in half... she's in two pieces, her screams have stopped, she's gone limp, there's red stuff leaking out of the box, and I got my handcuffs out. Somebody better fix this fast, or I'm going to be looking real damn hard at anyone from my state who voted for it this year, and just as damn hard at Trump two years from now.

Anyone else who is tired of being shafted, I challenge you to do what I am going to do: find out which of your Congressmen voted for this monstrosity, and vote them out at the first opportunity. I don't care if they're Democrat or Republican, and if you do, you're part of the problem... just take what your masters allow you to have and quit complaining.

And I am going to keep mentioning this until people get it: the Democrats in Congress were so upset over the DACA situation, they shut the government down over it when it wasn't even coming up for a vote! But they "got everything they wanted" in a $1.3 TRILLION Omnibus Bill, and yet nowhere in the 2000+ pages does it even mention DACA. I guess that proves they do not want to help DACA recipients, and shut the government down for pure spite and nothing else.

I blame Congress... ALL of Congress... but dammit, Trump, where's that masterful dealing you promised? This ain't it. Shape up or I'll ship you out in 2020.

TheRedneck

4D Chess?

Is this a set up for next time?

a reply to: carewemust

Bs.

We dont want them "brought together". We want them to only be motivated by losing their job.

I want congress focused. Why are any of them spending time in front of cameras when they havent done their most essential task of building a budget?

Feel like a fool for being the only one questioning this, but... is this source really legit? Reason why I ask is because it says it is provided by highly compex algorithms.... but while all those big boxes are increasing, all the smaller ones linked on to them remain the same when they, too, should change... for such complexity they couldn't afford to fit that in there? More troublesome is the fact that you can 'rewind' the clock back through the decades... where it Still shows the numbers going up. I mean, yeah they'd have the records of what the debt was on this day in such and such year.... but they really have the second by second updates of the debt 30 years ago??

Both are such simple things, one lack and one additiom... but very troublesome, poking at me every time I try and accept it.

Also, I looked three times but couldn't find the supposed allocation to global military.

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

BWAHAHAHA

a reply to: IgnoranceIsntBlisss

If you miss one car or house payment, the bank forecloses, seizes assets.

The gubment has spent itself to our financial ruin, yet the bank keeps signing the checks.

And what happens when the Chinese stop buying this debt because they decide it's too risky...

Or they decide stopping buying the debt is a good way to hit back at Trump over his trade war...