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Yep, you've read this before, haven't you? Once again, heat records were set over Labor Day weekend from California to Colorado as the West, in a historic megadrought, continues to burn, with fierce fires bursting out and some areas experiencing temperatures 20 degrees above the norm for this season. Yawn"
And ho-hum as well: With Covid officially more or less over, masking in this country largely left to the dead, and a mere 380 or so of us a day (yes, you read that right!) still dying from the disease that's slaughtered more than a million Americans, with a new booster arriving but sure to be underused, and another nearly 40,000 of us hospitalized by the pandemic at any moment, all's well in this nation, right?
Oh, and then there was that state capital, Jackson, Mississippi, which, after massive floods, couldn't provide its inhabitants with drinking water for days on end, thanks in part to decades of deferred maintenance on a failing water treatment plant. But, honestly, no big deal, not in the larger scheme of things, right?
And don't forget that, "post"-pandemic, the reading and math scores of American nine-year-olds have fallen, on average, "by the largest margin in more than 30 years."
And I almost forgot that hunger has risen in this country by 9% since 2019.
Now, let me turn for a moment to a personal high, I'm 78, at a time when life expectancy in this country has plummeted to 76, the "sharpest two-year decline in nearly 100 years," so, honestly, I feel great and you should, too (if you happen to be more than 76 yourself, that is)!
And all of that, of course, is after Donald Trump's presidency but before we've felt the full impact of gun sales rising to nearly 20 million a year in a country that may all too literally be coming apart at the seams.
Let me just add that if, however irrationally, any of the above worries you, you should stop fretting right now! Instead, read the latest piece from TomDispatch regulars and Pentagon experts William Hartung and Julia Gledhill and you'll feel enormous relief. After all, isn't it an upper to know that, in such times, our congressional representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, are endlessly ready to raise staggering sums annually" no, not to help you (please!), but to support" yep, the Pentagon and the rest of the military-industrial complex in the fashion they deserve. So, relax, read the piece, and know that this country couldn't be better defended " or do I mean more defensive? Or, actually, do I mean more offensive? You decide. Tom
Spending Unlimited
Contractors Cash in as Congress Adds Billions to the Pentagon Budget
By Julia Gledhill and William D. Hartung
Congress has spoken when it comes to next year's Pentagon budget and the results, if they weren't so in line with past practices, should astonish us all. The House of Representatives voted to add $37 billion and the Senate $45 billion to the administration's already humongous request for "national defense," a staggering figure that includes both the Pentagon budget and work on nuclear weapons at the Department of Energy. If enacted, the Senate's sum would push spending on the military to at least $850 billion annually, far more " adjusted for inflation " than at the height of the Korean or Vietnam wars or the peak years of the Cold War.
U.S. military spending is, of course, astronomically high " more than that of the next nine countries combined. Here's the kicker, though: the Pentagon (an institution that has never passed a comprehensive financial audit) doesn't even ask for all those yearly spending increases in its budget requests to Congress. Instead, the House and Senate continue to give it extra tens of billions of dollars annually. No matter that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has publicly stated the Pentagon has all it needs to "get the capabilities" to support our operational concepts" without such sums.
It would be one thing if such added funding were at least crafted in line with a carefully considered defense strategy. More often than not, though, much of it goes to multibillion dollar weapons projects being built in the districts or states of key lawmakers or for items on Pentagon wish lists (formally known as "unfunded priorities lists"). It's unclear how such items can be "priorities" when they haven't even made it into the Pentagon's already enormous official budget request.
In addition, throwing yet more money at a department incapable of managing its current budget only further strains its ability to meet program goals and delivery dates. In other words, it actually impairs military readiness. Whatever limited fiscal discipline the Pentagon has dissipates further when lawmakers arbitrarily increase its budget, despite rampant mismanagement leading to persistent cost overruns and delivery delays on the military's most expensive (and sometimes least well-conceived) weapons programs.
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