If you think the country is going broke

[Arkansas Granny]

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

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[Iliyah]

1. And the rich wants that 59 billion as well.

GREEDY SOBs.

[Autumn]

2. If you think the country is going broke just look at the bloated military budget. nt

[workinclasszero]

12. Yeah...$611 billion...per year?

The Top 15 Countries For Military Expenditure In 2016 [Infographic]

Niall McCarthy Apr 24, 2017, 08:25am

The United States remained at the top of the military spending league last year with $611 billion. That's 36 percent of the global total and over three times the amount spent by second-placed China. Russia upped its outlay 5.9 percent to $69.2 billion, third overall, according to the Swedish think tank.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/04/24/the-top-15-countries-for-military-expenditure-in-2016-infographic/#2e2343b343f3

[oldsoftie]

13. "As a percentage of GDP" is the only true comparison. In that metric, we're not at the top.

And if you think the Chinese or Russians actually release accurate figures.........

[Autumn]

14. I'm willing to bet next year they will get even more. They got 82 B more than

the POS administration had asked for.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2018/06/20/house-and-senate-democrats-vote-68-percent-and-85-percent-for-massive-military-spending/#182c495101d6

According to Jeff Stein at the Washington Post's Wonkblog, the Senate on Monday voted in favor of a $716 billion military spending bill for the 2019 federal fiscal year. The House had already passed it last month.

This is $82 billion higher than the current budget, which itself was more than the Trump administration requested.

Who says those in the Beltway can't pull together for a common cause?


This year, 67.5% of House Democrats and 85% of Senate Democrats voted in favor. Win some in the house, lose some in the Senate. Overall, pretty big majorities.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. $611 billion?!? Try twice that!

As your own graphic states, that figure is 3 years old.

2019 budget; $1.3 TRILLION.

From the DOD's own website;

https://dod.defense.gov/News/SpecialReports/Budget2019.aspx

[workinclasszero]

16. Damn!

This is why the bastards GOP say we can't have anything good for the people in this country!

Well that plus they hate all non rich folks.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. I put the following up on FB the other day in response to a good friends post of a similar nature

Want to know why we Americans can't have nice things?

Because we pay through the nose to a military establishment whose budget CAN NOT BE QUESTIONED unless one wants to be accused of not being patriotic, or somehow unwilling to "support our troops".

Support our troops?

How about we don't support the CEO's and other upper executives of the Defense Contractors? Take a look at Raytheon. They get virtually every single penny of revenue from government contracts, which include overseas governments. So ALL of the money they take in as sales came out of the pocket of a civilian, either an American or whoever.

The CEO of Raytheon is one Thomas A. Kennedy, who has been with the firm since 1983 and was named CEO in 2014.

His total compensation for 2017 was just under $25,000,000. $24,883,871 to be exact, according to Raytheon's own, publicly available Proxy Statement. In 2016 and 2015 he was paid just over twenty million each per year. He will have likely gotten a raise for 2018, so over the last 4 years this man has had his net worth increase by over EIGHTY MILLION DOLLARS, ALL OF IT ON THE TAXPAYERS DIME. Every red cent.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/.../raytheon-proxy2018_0053...

Now someone might say "Yeah, but a lot of that is in company stock" Yup, sure is, and it's currently trading in the $185/share range and every single cent of that value is due to them securing ongoing military contracts. Another possible argument to defend this obscenity is "Well, it's a corporation that is publicly held, with a board of directors and they are free to do what they want as long as the shareholders agree". Sure. All true. But the fact is, they don't make any consumer goods. Nothing. You and I can not buy ANYTHING from Raytheon without a DOD purchase order.

So the entire company is supported by taxpayers like you and me and the top executives are laughing all the way to the bank at us stupid suckers!

They aren't unique, BTW. Finding out this info on any publicly traded company is easy. Just go to their website, find the tab or link for "Investor relations" or similar and then look for the most recent "Proxy Statement". That's where you will find executive compensation. Google "Top 10 Military Contractors" and look at any one of them.

Mr. Kennedy is not alone, not by a long shot. The man who preceded the current CEO of General Dynamics is a former Navy Admiral who walked away with a net worth in excess of $100 million, again, all of it on the taxpayers dime.

It needs to stop.

Congress should pass legislation limiting the compensation of anyone working for a firm that gets 75% or more of it's annual revenue from the government. No CEO of a government contractor should be paid more than the President of the United States, PERIOD.

It is the plundering of the system by a select few and they are literally getting away with stealing from the American people.

The 2019 Pentagon budget is $1.3 Trillion. TRILLION!! That breaks down to $2,473,363.77 PER MINUTE spent on "defense". That doesn't include any so called "Dark" or "Black" programs.

If we slashed the military budget by 2/3rds, the Navy would still be able to float enough ships to destroy the world, the Air Force would still be able to have fancy planes to fly, the Army would still get tanks and rifles and the Marines would still get what they need. It would just have to be done in a smarter and less wasteful way.

Want health care and decent roads and free college? Pay fucking Thomas A Kennedy five hundred grand a year and tell Raytheon and the rest to stop ripping us off.

One more thing;

The US Military is really, at its heart, a jobs program, full stop. It always strikes me as ridiculous that some people complain that a teacher might make $50,000 a year but they NEVER seem to be at all concerned that a Steamfitter or Machinist working at Electric Boat in Groton is making $40/hour with a full suite of top-line Union benefits, all on the taxpayers' dime

[thegoose]

3. It's morally bankrupt

Thanks to the Pukes and Dump.

[exboyfil]

4. Medicaid spending alone is about $600B/yr.

SNAP $70B
TANF $30B
Medicare from General Fund $290B
Subsidized Housing $30B

I agree we need a wealth tax, and we need to ensure that we are not subsidizing companies or individuals without compelling policy reasons. To say that benefits without a funding stream (Social Security and Medicare) are not also a driver for the budget deficit is deceptive.

I also think we need to scale back defense spending, but that should be in conjunction with a rationalization for our military (ie more of an isolationist stance). Too many Naval ships, too many expensive aircrafts, too many needless military bases, and too much willingness to use the military where we should not.

Given what the federal government already spends for healthcare, you have to think there is a better way. We are at a $1T out of the general fund already (that includes federal and state).

[MichMan]

6. Appears that the OP isn't close to being correct

[Duppers]

7. Thank you!

When we fight the greedy assholes, we cannot lose our credibility, so thank you again for posting these facts.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. K&R. Thanks for that simple, clean summary.

Our defense spending has always been the largest slice of taxation pork on our planet. Much of it goes to protect wealthy interests only, including subversion of the politics in many developing nations.

American defense spending causes other much poorer nations to spend tit-for-tat with funds sorely needed elsewhere for infrastructure and humanitarian needs. American defense firms love to gobble up those funds, so it's a self-feeding monster!

Not to mention that it helps keep much of the planet in a state of constant fear.......

[at140]

5. Trump's tax cut made the rich much richer

while he threw a bone to the middle class. My tax cut was $400, Trump corporation probably saved
$400,000,000 on tax in 2018.

[yaesu]

8. About 100 billion on corporate welfare & the top 8 2017 takers were

Boeing at 13.18 billion, Alcoa at 5.62 billion, Intel at 3.87 billion, GM at 3.58 billion, Ford at 2.52 billion, Chrysler at 2.06 billion, Royal Dutch Shell at 2.04 billion & Nike at 2.03 billion.

[BadgerMom]

9. Kicked/Recommended

[LiberalLovinLug]

10. I wish Democrats would understand how to use simple memes like this

An ad that basically says the same thing. Simple, one message at a time. Don't need much narrative over top.

But then I also can understand how these kinds of memes were frowned upon by the third way neo liberals in charge of the party for the last 20 years. Even though it wasn't true about both parties being the same....on a whole lot of other issues, social, environmental, and others, this is the one they could agree on. Granted the GOP were always willing to double down on whatever tax giveaway the Dems proposed.

[MichMan]

18. Memes that are not true ?

See post #4

[LiberalLovinLug]

19. Obviously not

They'd have to get their numbers right.

But for this issue and other important ones, they have to present the facts on one issue at a time, in simple language, preferably with a visual to back it up. Kerry, Gore, and even Obama were guilty of assuming everyone in their audience, whether live or through the TV, had studied the particulars of the issues as much as they had, and wanted a detailed explanation, like a professor would. In this day of social media memes, Instagram posts, our attention deficit is only growing smaller, (unfortunately). But it is a reality.