In his latest "major" speech on foreign policy, Mitt Romney argued yesterday he'll push NATO allies, many of which are already pursuing austerity measures, to significantly boost their own defense spending. How would a Romney administration do this? Apparently, the Republican has a lot of faith in his persuasive abilities.
But here at home, Romney is even more ambitious. As President Obama twice noted in last week's debate, the former governor is seeking "$2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn't asked for." That's on top of the additional spending Romney has planned for entitlements, and the trillions in tax cuts the Republican demands.
In Foreign Policy yesterday, Travis Sharp posted this interesting piece, which Rachel featured on the show last night.
See that green line? That's what the nation would spend on defense if Obama is re-elected. See the yellow line? That's Romney's proposed Pentagon spending.
As Rachel put it, "People say there's no real difference between the candidates? Holy mackerel! When you're talking about the biggest pile of money in the whole world, the largest amount of discretionary money spent on anything by our government -- boy, howdy, is there a difference here. Boy, howdy, does this election matter."
Incidentally, how does Romney intend to pay for all of this additional defense spending? He refuses to tell anyone -- the GOP candidate expects to get elected first, then he'll let Americans in on the details of his plans -- though Big Bird is apparently in big trouble.
For the record, PBS gets about $400 million a year from Congress. Romney intends to spend an additional $2 trillion on the Pentagon -- on top of the money already being spent on defense.
As for why the United States, which already spends more on our military than most of the major powers combined spend on their militaries, needs to increase defense spending by such an enormous amount, Romney hasn't exactly explained that, either. Apparently, Americans would be in for quite an education in early 2013.
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Maybe I missed it, but did Romney say what we need to spend all this extra money on? Or is he just anticipating that he will tick off the whole world to the point where we need moats and bowmen to protect all our oil interests?
He mentioned building ships and submarines. This of course is code for"I'm going to make defense contractors very wealthy with taxpayer money."
How many countries does HE plan on invading to shove democracy down their throats?
Anyone Israel points to, for a start.
This uptick in ship building will require recruiting additional crews to man the ships and a lot of borrowing from China to finance it all. Brilliant.
No, no...he won't borrow from China to spend here...he said so in the debate.
And yet again Willard manages to display in public what a pant-load he truly is.
He said in the big speech; 15 ships A YEAR, plus 3 submarines. 15 ships ... every year. Can someone please explain to me how these idiots are able to wear the crown of "fiscal responsibility"?
Anyone know how to get a downloadable version of that graph?
Romney is anticipating World War III, and he would be the kind of an idiot to start it. He has no idea what he is doing. He won't be happy until he blows up the entire World leaving North America standing alone by itself. He is sicker than Hitler, that you can believe. Any man that would lie, cheat and deceive the way that he does is capable of totally annihilating the Earth. So far he has managed to pull the wool over half of the American population. He is possessed and it isn't by any good spirit that I can tell. He has lost his mind, and noone sees it except the 47%. He is signing our death notice using our own blood, sweat and tears. It's up to all Americans to see through this facade and send him back to where he belongs, within his own egoic hell that he has created for himself.
I just hope if and when he loses, he goes away for good.
Neo cons have been relating mundane events unfolding into the cleverly leading apocalyptic hilarity of the somber sounding byte , W W III , since (at least) 1999 . Cue in Chopin's death march and watch as well paid actors playing journalists revel in their astonishment at the gravity in hot air , for cash , again .
This certainty has been barely dodged umpteen times but , maybe it is time to fear again ...
A paralyzing drinking game leading to alcohol toxicity , "How many times can Billy Kristol be wrong !" , ladies and gentleman your glasses please .
They are fueling their own fears, by preparing for the very thing they are willing to have happen. What really is needed is a mighty hand to come down from above and destroy all the weapons on this Earth. That is what we should be willing to let happen.
Obamacare. ROMNEYSCARE.
After 9/11, the Republicans discovered that there was Big Money in "Be afraid, be very, very afraid!"
Eisenhower's advice to 'beware the Military/Industrial Complex' did not envision the huge domestic market for "fear solutions" to non-existing problems that are both expensive and useless. ("Take off your shoes, please, and put those nail clippers in the waste bin. You have a choice: walk through this machine or submit to a strip search.")
Somewhere George Orwell is considering a law suit for Theft of Intellectual Property!
Mitt Romney and the other raging neo-con hawks have miscalculated. Their aggressive rhetoric on foreign policy and relentless bashing of the president's record underestimates the support Obama has on foreign policy and the complete disgust among the public with any talk of more neo-con military adventures that will hit America hard in the pocketbook and with the lives of our soldiers. We do not need war with Iran. This agenda is out of touch with both reality and the sentiment of most voters. - progressive
If you remember also, the Republican candidates for President brought this subject up. Noone was talking about Iran, until they started to. I think it all began as a ploy to get the backing and support from Adele Stevenson( I think I spelled his name wrong). If Israel is instigating and picking fights with Iran then they need to settle it, they have decided to use the political platform to carry out their own agenda. Money is like candy to the Republicans and they will do anything for it. They are playing with fire especially when they decided to use Iran in their game. Iran doesn't play games, it sickens them to think that Republicans are using them as a tool in their quest for Money.
No one with their heads in the sand was talking about Iran. Those of us who have followed the Middle east know Iran stirs the violence.
Well, those of us who know the Prince of Kashmir say differently.
I guess this is part of the presidential "resolve" thing...? He's resolved to spend a jillion dollars on defense that we don't need and the Pentagon doesn't want. That'll show them pesky terrorists! He doesn't seem to realize that putting that on the backs of the middle class and cutting the crap out of every other program to pay for it is practically domestic terrorism on its own.
What do you mean by the word "practically?" What Romney proposes is nothing short of destroying America to save it. I mean when he gets done we will have soldiers on every street corner. They will do something with all that hardware and it won't be good.
Anyone remember why the World TRADE Center was targeted on 9/11? It was meant to destroy our economy. The terrorists knew that was their best chance to knock off the US. Now, are we really going to finish their job for them?
This talk about Iran is really stupid with everybody strutting their position on this nuclear weapon problem. When you know what is going to happen anyway. Iran will push their position as far as they can with this nuclear weapon issue in which they are not really stupid about. If Iran would keep pushing for a nuclear weapon; they know what is going to happen and that is they will get the crap bombed out of them. The real difference is between President Obama and Romney. President Obama will handle it more appropriately and Romney just wants to cause another war with senseless killing. Why these Republicans have to be so war nuts is beyond me, except maybe they are trying to prove they are men which is really stupid. There is more to men than just wanting to fight and kill all the time and puffing out your chest like an idiot and senseless killing with no real brains behind it. Men showing they got testosterone all the time need to crawl their butts into a cave, stay there, and never come out again. Because in the end, it just doesn’t cut it for women, except misery, despair, violence, and death and no food on the table for families.
I'm with you, women are sick of war. The women of this Earth demand that the men stop fighting. They are scaring us, they are putting themselves and us in a very bad situation all the time. If they truly love the women and children they are defending then they will never pick up another weapon again. They need to learn how to settle their differences like grown men and stop behaving like Peter Pan playing army all the time in the woods. I don't want to play anymore, I always got into trouble for it when I was young because someone always ended up hurt. Listen to your Mothers, wives and daughters stop the violence.
But those people that are promoting and pushing this war aren't the ones that will fight. You should know that from Viet Nam, Iraq 1, Iraq 2 and Afghanistan. Those pesky, lazy, non-tax paying moochers from the 47% will be the ones to die.
I think China,Russia and to some extend Iran are rooting for this cold war mentality.
China and Russia,especially China is ready to lend us all the money we want to pursue this craziness--The more we are in debt the better for them.
Too bad for them then, that the cold war mentality has left us.
Big defense spending is how he will funnel money to the tribe.
LDS/BYU is already stipulated as having government defense interests. LDS is running the Boeing plant in Meza, AZ. Isn't NSA's new complex in Utah as well?
There is much goings-on in Utah these days...we'll be trading our union dues for church numbers if Romney gets in.
Well, you have to admit, he did have a profound effect on the British while on his trip during the Olympics. Brow-beating allies into spending more on defense, which seems to be the only Republican method of dealing with people (and one that seems to work quite well on the spineless) will clearly certainly work on Europe, who are, I think everyone realizes, just chomping at the bit for a return to Bush-style foreign "diplomacy."
Sure hope the geniuses in Democratic messaging have figured a way to pithily point this out to the public but ...
but ... the useful idiots of the GOP not only don't care what the rest of the world thinks, it's their considered opinion that if the rest of the world is annoyed by the US posturing, then a good day's work has been done.
Obviously the chart shows Romney's erection spending strategy when it comes to our men and women in uniform (and his buddies who are a hurting when it comes to the recently regulated spigot of corporate welfare)! -Kevo
Hey Kevo-
I just love it when a misspelled word is actually better in context than the appropriate word. LOL
Erection is not misspelled! (Look at the chart.) Every military-industrial complex CEO is as hard as blue steel anticipating a Romney presidency! -Kevo
Where have you gone Lysistrata
Our nation turns its weary eyes to you
Woo woo woo
Whats that you say Aristophanes
Lyssi has turned and gone away
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
What the hell?? You guys are doing protest chants in a blog?? Weird.
Does anyone have a link to this? When R. Maddow pointed to Cincinnati as one of the Strip Club capitals prior to the RNC (ironically during a debunktion junction segment), when they have zero, I don't trust her reporting one bit.
I found this "Your Tax Dollars at Work" youtube pretty compelling viewing-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgeT87cbqGE
Great video! Only 5,000 hits? Wouldn't the world be amazing if all that money was spent on civil service,, rather than exploded?
Ugh, war good for profiteers! (sure people kill and get killed and yes war breeds hatred and well yes war never really solves the underlying conflicts but profits are good)
WWI beget WWII which beget the Korean war which led us to inventing a cold war which beget McCarthy then we bounced back with Viet Nam. Then the Bushes gave us the wars in the Middle East. So Mitt is obliged to double down on military expense.
The thing is even democrats in Congress like to get defense spending in their state.It beats road projects or other infrastructure work.
Evolution? I wonder. But then again intelligent design is definitely impossible.
What sickens me is that people are buying this. He said little different than the president alrady has said. How big a brain does it take to say " against Iran I will make " tougher sanctions" Have you seen the effects of the current sanctions?
I look forward to that debate.
I don't think a Mitt Romanov plutocracy is actively seeking conflict but bloating the defense budget is just being pragmatic. Then if you ever need to utter the magic words "yellow cake", you're good to go!
"We suck that misery and find it sweet. We search for more, always."
-Something Wicked This Way Comes.
To be fair, the comparison between $2 trillion and $400 million is comparing costs over 10 years to costs for 1 year. It's really $2 trillion to $4 billion. Still inconceivably one-sided, but at least it's apples to apples, just really expensive unnecessary apples to healthy, educational, and useful apples.