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[Muppet of a Man]

while it was obvious he was full of hot air, campaign trump genuinely did run against both parties and was quite perceptive about how wasteful a lot of military commitments were - see his comments on nato where he was critical of how european countries underspend on defense because they know usa will of course pick up the slack, or his attacks on the iraq war not from the perspective of humanitarian cost but from financial waste of it.

it would have been interesting to see him properly go for things like large infrastructure spending or try and go for single payer on healthcare like aspects of his campaign suggested he would. instead he's running as a generic republican with this budgets cuts to finance more pointless military spending and his healthcare plan cutting taxes for the rich while throwing millions off insurance. rubbish.

He's a fucking vacuous con man. People from NY and NJ have warned people of that. He was conning the tax payers of those states out of hundreds of millions of dollars by telling them what they wanted to hear and then doing the opposite opportunistic thing to line his pockets despite his businesses constantly failing long before he ever became involved with politics.

See his business dealings in NYC and Atlantic City for a plethora of examples.

The ironic thing is that people from the interior and rural parts of the country always have had this massive inferiority complex and chip on their shoulder, decrying NYC and NJ as havens for corrupt politicians, bankers, and businessmen. Then these same people elect number one corrupt businessman from the place they detest. You couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

 

[shira]

$437,000,000 for military marching bands

?????????????????????????

 

[Carpe Libertatem]

$437,000,000 for military marching bands

?????????????????????????

Authoritarians love their parades

 

[Damaniel]

$437,000,000 for military marching bands

?????????????????????????

I guess that counts as arts and humanities if you squint hard enough.

 

[LosDaddie]

Expected.

This is exactly what he campaigned on.

 

[Toxi]

WTF

What the fuck

 

[Madness]

Pretty hilarious to cut a lot of Earth space funding to focus on Mars and beyond. I am a giant fan of space exploration, but this doesn't need to be either/or. Cut some of that bloated military increase. Humans aren't leaving Earth en masse any time soon. Guarantee most of the cuts were to missions studying planetaru behaviors and climate change etc.

 

[xxracerxx]

Are there any good articles out there that actually document why "rebuilding" the military is a thing that needs to happen when we already spend WAY more than any other country out there?

 

[Marquis]

Are there any good articles out there that actually document why "rebuilding" the military is a thing that needs to happen when we already spend WAY more than any other country out there?

I can't imagine there is any logical argument out there as to why we need to spend even more on a military that is vastly superior to every other nation out there.

 

[Trey]

Are there any good articles out there that actually document why "rebuilding" the military is a thing that needs to happen when we already spend WAY more than any other country out there?

It's corporate welfare.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I wonder how NIH funding for grants for outside research will be if this happens, Hopefully they dont decrease how much they make available for grants and outside research, especially NIAID [National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease] Though even under the last president and before that it was increasingly becoming harder for researchers to win grants.

Some of the non health science related funding cuts make sense, why fund far off space missions when health science research is kind of more relevant.

 

[Toxi]

I wonder how NIH funding for grants for outside research will be if this happens, Hopefully they dont decrease how much they make available for grants and outside research, especially NIAID [National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease] Though even under the last president and before that it was increasingly becoming harder for researchers to win grants.

Some of the non health science related funding cuts make sense, why fund far off space missions when health science research is kind of more relevant.

Trump isn't proposing cutting funds to space exploration, he's proposing cutting funds for Earth observation, satellite maintenance, and education. Aka climate change-related stuff. Which is kinda important for figuring out how we can continue surviving on our little blue rock.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Some of the non health science related funding cuts make sense, why fund far off space missions when health science research is kind of more relevant.

Says who?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spin-off_technologies

Now imagine all of those technologies weren't invented in the pursuit of space.

 

[Durrzerker]

Tldr: "You know, I don't think we really gave serfdom a fair shot."

 

[jelly]

Government should be looking at not paying hundreds of dollars for military toilet roll and all the other scams that bloat the wasteful military budget. It doesn't need more money down a black hole.

 

[Glass Shark]

I don't understand how anyone can look at this budget, where we're cutting funding for Meals on Wheels, all the while Trump is blowing money on golfing every weekend, his "winter White House," Trump Tower security, and pointless campaign rallies after he already won the election and not think "well this is objectively bad."

 

[Curufinwe]

Any media interviews yet with old people who voted for Trump and now stand to lose their meals on wheels?

 

[AlphaDump]

Are there any good articles out there that actually document why "rebuilding" the military is a thing that needs to happen when we already spend WAY more than any other country out there?

Because this is the final year before being fully audited.

 

[Captin Quacker]

Expected.

This is exactly what he campaigned on.

He also campaigned on fixing our infrastructure

 

[Breads]

VA change is good. DHS is useless and why do the fuck do we need 9% more on defense spending.

Some of those cuts are bonkers.

Is this really it? It's like it was made specifically to placate his base and nothing else. It doesn't seem like a functional improvement to our country. It takes more away from citizens than it gives.

 

[Fenderputty]

Expected.

This is exactly what he campaigned on.

I bet he wishes he could say that about healthcare

 

[nintendoman58]

Is it true that this thing doesn't need 60 votes, and when will this thing come to a vote?

 

[ezrarh]

The sting wouldn't be as bad if the money was proportionately returned back to the localities but nope, we're gonna be an equal amount on bullshit DoD stuff.

 

[PKrockin]

This is going to massively impact rural communities where government programs are one of the very few opportunities for people with arts degrees to get a job locally. Those people will be forced to move to a big city, furthering the destruction of small town America.

 

[Damaniel]

This is going to massively impact rural communities where government programs are one of the very few opportunities for people with arts degrees to get a job locally. Those people will be forced to move to a big city, furthering the destruction of small town America.

You mean the small town America where Trump's supporters disproportionally live? And to think, they actually thought Trump would help them!

"Serves them right" is probably too harsh, so I'll just leave it at "elections have consequences". Maybe they'll think about those consequences next time they vote.

 

[Ernest]

Yeah, Trump, being the idiot that he is, fed on a diet of Fox News, has zero understanding of true diplomacy and the role of NATO and humanitarian missions play in keeping not just the peace, but keeping our interests safe abroad. Not to mention trade - another country won't go to war against us if they rely on us for trade. Heck, throwing free money at a country could pay better dividends than spending that same money on tanks and planes. But Trump only understands "more guns = more power", because he's a fucking moron.

 

[psychowave]

I don't live in the US so whenever I see these kind of headlines they're just so hard to believe to me. I mean, this is outright cartoon villain type of shit. It's just mind blowing that an actual real human being would propose a budget like this.

 

[onadesertedisland]

VA change is good. DHS is useless and why do the fuck do we need 9% more on defense spending.

Some of those cuts are bonkers.

Is this really it? It's like it was made specifically to placate his base and nothing else. It doesn't seem like a functional improvement to our country. It takes more away from citizens than it gives.

Improvement? That would mean he understands how the nation works. He has no idea. He is just passing on shit handed to him by evil fuckers behind the scenes.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

An actual "America First" budget (if you just took the phrase at face value rather than what the slogan has been made to mean) would literally have almost all of these arrows in the opposite direction. All of the agencies being cut are inward looking agencies that directly cater to the American people themselves. The areas getting major increases, with the exception of Veterans Affairs, are all outward looking areas of government.

It's literally a "Rest of the World First" budget.

good old misleading percentages

 

[bman94]

$437,000,000 for military marching bands

?????????????????????????

Most people don't realize this, but those members of the military bands aren't just musicians, they are service men too. So eveything a regular military service man goes through (as in basic training) and the regular benefits that the military gets, the musicians get too.

Now speaking as a musician, that is pretty extraordinary number but there's a lot to it. The United Air Force Band itself has 6 different ensembles, all which need to be funded. Take in consideration that they are constantly touring, performing and traveling, the budget starts to make a little sense.

Now I can't remember if this part was true that I heard but I think they get new instruments every few years which is kind of a waste of money cause well mantained instruments can be used for decades. But they also donate those instruments to school programs so I guess it works out.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Drastically slashing at the NIH budget which has been flatlined for 15+ years is a good way to drive the research community abroad.

Or simply kill millions of Americans when we're no longer first world in disease research.

 

[KernelPanic]

https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/status/842041901192683520

Nazi poster depicting the cost of health care for disabled folks as a burden on German workers and promoting euthanasia.

Sensing a bit of a pattern here

 

[jerry113]

The US Government is now attempting to institute its own brain drain. We're literally inflicting a gunshot to our own head by doing this. Years down the road, a lot of intellectual and entrepreneurial talent will have already left the country and our children will feel the consequences of lost career opportunities.

 

[shira]

Most people don't realize this, but those members of the military bands aren't just musicians, they are service men too. So eveything a regular military service man goes through (as in basic training) and the regular benefits that the military gets, the musicians get too.

Now speaking as a musician, that is pretty extraordinary number but there's a lot to it. The United Air Force Band itself has 6 different ensembles, all which need to be funded. Take in consideration that they are constantly touring, performing and traveling, the budget starts to make a little sense.

Now I can't remember if this part was true that I heard but I think they get new instruments every few years which is kind of a waste of money cause well mantained instruments can be used for decades. But they also donate those instruments to school programs so I guess it works out.

I'm not American, but it seems awfully high. If it includes serviceman ok I can see how that works

Then again if it's not going to this, it's probably going towards nukes/vehicles and definitely not towards the environment, education or anything like that.

 

[darkziosj]

oh usa you did it again.

 

[MGrant]

$437,000,000 for military marching bands

?????????????????????????

We gonna have the shiniest fuckin' Sousaphones you ever seen.

 

[Ether_Snake]

Trump is actively trying to undermine the US.

 

[Dead Prince]

https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/844240632331866112

Honored to sign S.442 today. With this legislation, we support @NASA's scientists, engineers, and astronauts in their pursuit of discovery!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/844250273740738562

Today on #NationalAgDay, we honor our great American farmers & ranchers. Their hard work & dedication are ingrained in our nation's fabric.