Budget Deal Would Give DOD Extra Funds In Exchange For Cuts To Social Programs

[WillyT]

Budget deal would give DOD extra funds in exchange for cuts to social programs
by John Aravosis (DC)
4/04/2011 09:35:00 PM

<snip>

From Ryan Grim and Sam Stein:

The Pentagon is poised to reap billions more in federal funds, according to sources close to the discussions. The confines of the budget negotiations established by the two parties results in a system where every extra dollar going to military spending ends up being offset by a dollar reduction in spending on domestic social programs.

Democrats and Republicans are now moving toward an agreement that would increase defense spending. But Democratic sources close to the talks said the Democrats' spending recommendation remains roughly $2 billion shy of that of their Republican counterparts.

“If you plus up those areas together,” one high-ranking Democratic official said, “what happens is you have to take it from somewhere else. And where are you taking it from? From Labor, Education, the NIH , health care, the social safety net. That’s how they are trying to jam us.”

Favorite quote:

Republicans say that Democrats knew from the beginning that proposed cuts to defense spending would be rejected.

<snip>

Link: http://www.americablog.com/2011/04/huffpo-budget-deal-would-give-dod-extra.html

:wtf:

:mad:

:kick:

[deminks]

1. I get it: no heat and no health care so defense spending can INCREASE.

/sarcasm off.

thank you for posting, was just going to post this myself. K&R

prosperity for them, austerity for us.

[MadHound]

2. Taking the Soviet style of destroying our country,

Spend our wealth on the military, which produces nothing, while starving the people who actually do produce stuff.

But hey, the obscenely rich will get richer:eyes:

[yngdip]

3. MLK called it out back in '67

"It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such."- MLK, A Time to Break Silence


Imperialism and militarism seem to be hard habits to break.

[WillyT]

4. + 1,000,000,000... What You And MLK Said !!!

And welcome to DU !!!

:hi:

[yngdip]

5. thanks!

:)

[ChazII]

6. Children's Tumor Foundation benefits from DOD

http://www.ctf.org/For-Scientists/cd-medicalresearch-program.html