Wed Jul 18, 2012, 04:33 PM

Purveyor (13,450 posts)

House Weighs Millions Military Spends On Sports Sponsorships

Source: Associated Press

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, July 18, 4:26 PM

WASHINGTON — Congress is wrapped around the axle over the military spending millions of dollars to sponsor NASCAR cars and other sports in a bid to boost recruiting.

Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia and Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota are pushing an amendment to cut $72.3 million from a $608 billion defense spending bill for military sponsorships. The House began debating the bill Wednesday. The two argue that in a time of growing deficits the money could be better spent elsewhere.

--CLIP
Yet the two lawmakers are facing resistance from their colleagues and sports leagues.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress/house-weighs-millions-military-spends-on-sports-sponsorships/2012/07/18/gJQAB1zCuW_story.html

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8 replies	Author	Time	Post
House Weighs Millions Military Spends On Sports Sponsorships (Original post)	Purveyor	Jul 2012	OP
Sounds good to me!	arcane1	Jul 2012	#1
Good. Cut all "sponsorship" spending.	Arctic Dave	Jul 2012	#2
Correct	Iggy	Jul 2012	#3
Eliminate ALL sponsorship spending.	obxhead	Jul 2012	#5
It's PR.	Igel	Jul 2012	#7
So you're in support of millions being spent to advertise	obxhead	Jul 2012	#8
Might makes right... we're a military power..	mountain grammy	Jul 2012	#4
LOL. I've noticed the similarity for some time now.	PSPS	Jul 2012	#6

Response to Purveyor (Original post)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 04:37 PM

arcane1 (20,148 posts)

1. Sounds good to me!

I don't like spending my taxes on advertising for an organization that everyone knows exists.

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Response to Purveyor (Original post)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 04:51 PM

Arctic Dave (12,643 posts)

2. Good. Cut all "sponsorship" spending.

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Response to Arctic Dave (Reply #2)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 05:20 PM

Iggy (1,418 posts)

3. Correct

I think it's already been proven these sponsorships do not signicantly aid recruiting.

end the sponsorships, and cut the bloated defense budget by 30-40 percent- invest the money
in our infrastructure

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Response to Arctic Dave (Reply #2)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 06:19 PM

obxhead (7,163 posts)

5. Eliminate ALL sponsorship spending.

No more "see, it's a video game" ads on TV and no more NG NASCAR. Hell I don't even want to see the fighters fly over sports events again. It's all an enormous waste of money.

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Response to obxhead (Reply #5)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 07:15 PM

Igel (17,637 posts)

7. It's PR.

It's like when a representative goes to a state fair to be seen. It's a "business trip" even though it's not really a chance to give a policy speech or inform the populace as to his actions, nor is it a chance for real feedback, to teach the politician what at least some of his constituents think.

It's PR.

It's a waste of money. But as the politician would say, it provides publicity and quite probably good will, neither of which are cheap and both of which are damned useful.

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Response to Igel (Reply #7)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 08:02 PM

obxhead (7,163 posts)

8. So you're in support of millions being spent to advertise

our military?

I can think of dozens of places our tax dollars would be far more "useful."

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Response to Purveyor (Original post)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 05:48 PM

mountain grammy (1,792 posts)

4. Might makes right... we're a military power..

and we have to show it off. Now it's flyovers that get everyone's patriotic juices flowing, soon it will be missles on flatbeds and soldiers marching in the streets. Sound familiar? We're on a slippery slope.

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Response to mountain grammy (Reply #4)

Wed Jul 18, 2012, 06:51 PM

PSPS (4,282 posts)

6. LOL. I've noticed the similarity for some time now.

The only thing missing is the platform with the "leaders" lined up watching the procession of hardware, complete with "media speculation" as to what it means that so-and-so is standing next to so-and-so.

Our "news media" has already turned into a caricature of Soviet-era Pravda.

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