Hidden Behind the Dreamers is an Exploding Defense Budget Congress Won't Debate
While Democrats, the GOP and the Trump administration grapple over immigration reform, the plight of the Dreamers and building a wall on the United States' southern border, the U.S. government remains on a path towards another shutdown for the second time in three weeks. As it stands, until these issues can be resolved, there will be no agreement on the budget. No budget, no government. Now, while this may be big news to the casual observer, a bigger story is being missed or ignored altogether. And that would be the budget itself. We'll explain.
It only took a scant review to understand the Department of Defense is getting the lion's share of government spending. If spending caps are lifted, and they will be, the Defense Department will receive as much as $824 billion dollars in funding for 2018 alone. Now, we believe in maintaining a strong defense as much as anybody else, but considering the U.S. military's performance and rates of success over the last two decades, one couldn't be blamed for asking WTF is really going on, and is all that military spending really necessary? Afghanistan is a prime example.
This week the Pentagon decided to restrict the release of information about the war in Afghanistan. After relentless terror attacks from the Taliban, ISIS and whomever else has a beef with the U.S. and the Afghan government, it's been made abundantly clear progress is not a word to describe the situation, let alone success. Perhaps that's the reason for the blackout of information. And with that blackout, "We the People" will remain in the dark as to why the United States is still in Afghanistan, what does the U.S. hope to achieve, how long will it take and of course, how much will it cost. And it's not just Afghanistan.
The United States military is scattered all over the world, conducting secret wars and special operations the American people are completely in the dark about. Many will recall the incident in Niger where four U.S. soldiers were ambushed and killed during a military operation there last year. When that story broke, even Congressional members were surprised, as many had no idea U.S. forces had been deployed in Niger. Congressional members were even more surprised to find out U.S. forces were deployed for operations in Mali as well. We were surprised because Congress was surprised. And now you should be too.
If Congress is being kept in the dark as much as the American people are, again, one couldn't be blamed for asking WTF is really going on and is all this military spending really necessary? It's not unreasonable to question how Congress can sign-off on massive defense increases without having the slightest idea what, where and how U.S. taxpayer dollars are being spent because we know it's not being used to win any wars, or even make any progress, for that matter. Why there's little to no debate over the Defense budget is a mystery to be solved, because the results of these exploding military expenditures are less than impressive, to say the least.
Bottom line: At last check, the U.S. defense budget is larger than the next 12 major industrialized nations combined. In fact, Russia, the U.S.' primary military adversary, has a budget of roughly $80 billion U.S. dollars this fiscal year. That's about one-tenth of what Congress is poised to authorize to defend America with for 2018. And with that comparatively modest military outlay, Russia has actually won its military engagement over the last ten years. Russia prevailed in the Russo-Georgian conflict in 2008. Russia took Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. And for all intents and purposes, Russia won the war in Syria this year. Now if that ain't a reason for some serious debate, nothing is. Podcast below.
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