minimal debate on close to Trillian dollar defense budget

What's that you say? I read that the 2008 defense budget passed by the house  395-13 with almost no debate, despite 1300 earmarks, was only $459.6 Billion.  

But that doesn't include the $147+ billion Bush wants from Congress for the Iraq supplemental (and will probably get - let's be real.)  Nor does that number include the many additional requests for Nuclear Weapons costs, international FBI expenses (including the war on drugs), etc.

It also doesn't include the debt service our grandchildren will be paying on this unfathomable and unconscionable waste of resources, and the sucking sound you here coming from the Pentagon and the DHS is the sound of social services, education, energy independence, and health care going down the drain.  And that's before the Senate gets a chance to add their 2 trillion cents.

According to the authoritative Center for Defense Information estimates, U.S. taxpayers will dole out at least $878 billion to cover military costs in 2008.  As CDI notes, the final total "will probably be even more."

Compared to the rest of the world in 2005 (from GlobalIssues.org)

US military spending was almost 7 times larger than the Chinese budget, the second largest spender.

The US military budget was almost 29 times as large as the combined spending of the six "rogue" states (Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria) who spent $14.65 billion.

It was more than the combined spending of the next 14 nations.

Since 2005, which is the most recent year we have data to compare, U.S. spending has gone up, up up, not counting the under the table spending on Iraq and the War on Terra.

So much for cutting down on earmarks, huh? 1300!

The "no" votes included John Lewis, Barney Frank, Nydia Velázquez, & Dennis Kucinich, of course.  Tancredo and Ron Paul did not vote.

The Senate will vote after the recess - any bets on which pres candidates will vote no?  the over under on the final tally for the bill?

•  And yet, health care is impossible. n/t

  by quantumspin on Mon Aug 06, 2007 at 11:14:23 PM PDT

•  Our national priorities are f*cked.

  One thing that always bothers me about conservatives is the fact that while they view every government program/agency as an unnecessary waste of tax dollars, the military is their sacred cow.  The military cannot be criticized, ever, and any attempt to rein in spending is portrayed as 'weak'.

  as the Taxpayers for Common Sense points out, we even spend billions on weapons systems that the Pentagon itself doesn't really want.

  The whole process is out of control.

  Personally, I'd much rather have a smaller defense establishment, a largely non-interventionist foreign policy and national health care.

  by YoyogiBear on Mon Aug 06, 2007 at 11:57:17 PM PDT

  •  The military cannot be criticized, ever...

    and that was how, back in the day, we ended up with this administration in the first place. I link to this source because at that time (Sunday, Nov. 19, 2000), I had never heard of dkos or freerepublic, but I saw Lieberman on TV frantically fudging facts and trying to tell us we were too dumb to distinguish things and the nation would fall to pieces if we had to wait too long to find out who actually won. WTF? I said, along with millions of other  

    "People [who] said,`Wait a minute. That's really off. That's not what we're saying.' We could never effectively communicate why we were right because we got ourselves in a position where it looked like we were trying to throw out military ballots when we were trying to throw out illegal ballots."

    Mark Herron, a Democratic lawyer in Tallahassee who drafted a memorandum detailing legal grounds on which to disqualify overseas ballots, said that when Mr. Lieberman failed to defend him on television, "I was watching with horror."

    Why the hell anyone from either side trusts Lieberman on anything escapes me, (who the hell was he working for at that moment?) And my distrust of him has only grown since then. It is a huge black mark against Gore in my book that he would choose Lieberman as a running mate.

    by peaceloveandkucinich on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 05:08:21 AM PDT

    •  woulda kept Joe out Congress, pretty smart

      by ghengismom on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 07:12:49 AM PDT

•  Our militarism

  has spiraled out of control and will ultimately implode.  Unfortunately, it will take our country (and the world) down with it.  

  by Aint Supposed to Die a Natural Death on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 04:06:20 AM PDT

  •  I keep reminding people around me that the blood

    IS on their hands for all the evil this country does, as long as they blithely pour their tax dollars into the Pentagon's well. The disconnect is huge. I went to church and asked the pastor howcome I can't find a church that is against war on principle alone. He told me we must respect the government we are given (yeah there's scripture for that) so I asked him how it is respectful to the office itself to allow it to be filled with men who are lying, war-profiteering, criminal murderers? He hasn't answered that one yet. He did talk the next week about how there may come a day when American Christians have to die for their faith, but I wonder when that day will be when we can't even seem to get them to vote in line with their beliefs...
    (whew- I feel better now after that rant. Please, people, don't dog-pile on me for trying to make this a Christian Nation or trying to tear down "separation of church and state. I'm not. I am simply trying to get people of faith to hold that faith close when they enter the booth and vote according to their convictions, and not accept "the lesser of two evils" when a concerted effort among citizens to vote for what's right might bring us better times and better government.)

    by peaceloveandkucinich on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 05:19:33 AM PDT