Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Pubbies' DOD Spend: High, to Say the Least

The politics-as-usual stench is enough to choke you. Once again, the US is assuming all the expense of defending Europe and Eastern Asia--not to mention a helluvalotta sand in the Middle East.

The House has released the 2012 defense spending bill and it includes a little bit of belt tightening. But just barely, and not enough to please Democrats who say there should be significant cuts at the Pentagon to counter proposals to slash domestic spending.

The bill would provide $539 billion in total defense allocations for the 2012 fiscal year. That's just a hair below the president's FY 2012 request. Republicans lopped off $8.9 billion in spending, but even with those cuts, the total comes in $17 billion above this year's spending levels.

Not surprising: Hal Rogers' press release was quoted extensively; you'd think he's Florence Nightingale.

He's not. He's just another Big Spender.

PJBuchanan asks the questions that Rogers didn't bother to deal with:

Europe is as prosperous and more populous than the United States. And the Russian army is no longer in Germany, but 1,000 miles to the east, behind the Baltic republics, Belarus and Ukraine.

What is the necessity now for a U.S. troop presence in Europe?

We'll have to answer those very, very soon.

No comments: