"Peace Prize President Submits Largest War Budget Ever"

[amborin]

'Peace Prize' President Submits Largest War Budget Ever

Obama Seeks Record $708 Billion in Defense Budget

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday asked Congress to approve a record $708 billion in defense spending for fiscal year 2011, including a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon's base budget and $159 billion to fund U.S. military missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The White House budget request also included $33 billion in additional funding for fiscal 2010 to pay for increasing military and intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and drawing down U.S. forces in Iraq. That comes on top of $129.6 billion already provided for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.

The Pentagon's base budget request of $549 billion is up $18 billion from $531 billion in fiscal 2010, and will pay for continued reforms of defense acquisitions, development of a ballistic missile defense system and care of wounded soldiers.

snip

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/02/01-9

[leftstreet]

1. Oops

K&R

[FiveGoodMen]

2. Good thing we've got all that extra money lying around!

[slay]

3. Recommended to counter whoever keeps unrec-ing this thread

f-in unrecin cowards :kick:

[DisgustedInMN]

4. It's hard not to be..

.. disappointed in the direction Obama has chosen to take in feeding the war machine. I guess it keeps the unemployment figures down somewhat, if you keep feeding fresh stock to meatgrinders in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was wrong when Bush the Idiot did it and it's STILL wrong today.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

5. Please consider participating in Peace of the Action this March in DC

this would get their attention. Bring DC to a grinding halt

http://peaceoftheaction.org/

[Odin2005]

6. Plently for killing people, nothing for helping people. Disgusting.

[uppityperson]

7. For curiosities sake, what were the numbers during bush yrs?

[amborin]

8. Administration can use threats when it wants to:

"From the jump, the White House and Democratic Leadership had the gloves off in the fight. Consider this report from last week:

Rep. Lynn Woolsey of California, a leader of the antiwar Democrats, said the White House is threatening to withdraw support from freshmen who oppose the bill, saying “you’ll never hear from us again.”
She said the House leadership also is targeting the freshmen.
It’s really hard for the freshmen,” she said. “Nancy’s pretty powerful...."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/17-5

[JoeyT]

34. But I thought the President

had no ability whatsoever to change legislation?
Isn't that what people keep telling us about HCR?

Guess they only fight for things that are important.

[amborin]

39. exactly

i htink that article needs to be an OP

[bvar22]

9. I don't care WHO is President, or which "Party" is in power,

we have to find a way to defund the War Machine.

This insanity is unsustainable and immoral.
American citizens are homeless, jobless, and without Health Care.

We need to immediately REDUCE Military Spending by at least 50%.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children."
---Republican President Dwight Eisenhower

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. - - +1 - -

.
.
.

:thumbsup:

[Individualist]

17. +1

[Lord Helmet]

11. He didn't start the wars but he intends to finish them.

The wars were left on his doorstep and no serious person believes he can bring them to a screeching halt overnight.

Your inference that he's a warmonger is hyperbolic red meat for many here but it's far from truthful reality.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. Bullshit!

[johnaries]

21. Very insightful response.

:sarcasm:

What would you propose?

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. So how exactly does one end a war anyway?

[johnaries]

22. It depends upon the objective.

Luckily, Obama has defined the objectives that were so nebulous under Bush.

[johnaries]

20. +1

[amborin]

14. TheNation: "No Defense for this Budget"

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/525267/no_defense_for_this_budget

[branders seine]

15. and we're not really even at war

constitutionally speaking

[lonestarnot]

18. Welp occupations are expensive.

[ProSense]

16. "Bush's 2007 war budget was $53 billion more than Obama's proposed budget"

Bush's 2007 war budget was $53 billion more than Obama's proposed budget


What's in the defense budget



The OP title is complete bullshit.

[amborin]

19. $708 billion plus for 2011, alone! The OP is the painful truth

the nation write:

"On Monday, the Obama Administration requested $708 billion for the Defense Department next year--including $549 billion for its base budget and $159 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This doesn't even include the $33 billion supplement the White House will request for its escalation in Afghanistan this year...."

[ProSense]

23. Simple math: $159B+ $33B = $192B...$245B - $192B = $53B

The OP title is bullshit.

[amborin]

25. Obama's Defense budget== $ 549 bill + $159 bill + $33 bill = $741 billion dollars total

"On Monday, the Obama Administration requested $708 billion for the Defense Department next year--including $549 billion for its base budget and $159 billion for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This doesn't even include the $33 billion supplement the White House will request for its escalation in Afghanistan this year...."

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/525267/no_defense_for_this_budget

[johnaries]

28. And did you notice that part of that is for the DRAWDOWN of

troops in Iraq? And also for the "care of wounded soldiers"?

Also, remember that al Qaeda attacked us, not the other way around. Yes, we need to get out of Iraq and we are. We also need to finish the job in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Which we are.

[amborin]

29. i was wrong! turns out Obama will spend $744 bill + add'l $160 bill = $904 billion dollars total

"

"At $744 billion, the military budget -- including military programs outside the Pentagon, such as the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons management -- is a budget of add-ons rather than choices," says Miriam Pemberton at the Institute for Policy Studies. "And it makes the imbalance between spending on military vs. non-military security tools worse."

Of course the corporate profits for military contractors are humongous.

The executive director of the National Priorities Project, Jo Comerford, offers this context: "The Obama administration has handed us the largest Pentagon budget since World War II, not including the $160 billion in war funding for Iraq and Afghanistan."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/02

[ProSense]

30. Now you're just being ridiculous.

It's more important for you to distort Obama's record even if it makes Bush look good.

[amborin]

31. the defense totals are on record, at the many links listed

[ProSense]

32. No, you just can't add or are desperately spinning, but hey

at least you have an audience.

[amborin]

33. $744 billion + $160 billion = $904 billion total

[johnaries]

24. Abou that Peace Prize:

Russia and US 'agree to nuclear deal'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7013042.ece

[marshall]

26. Peace ain't cheap!

At least that's what I've heard.

[SanchoPanza]

27. The word "supplemental" isn't in that article.

The Bush Administration kept much of the expenditures for Iraq/Afghanistan out of the regular budget, and used supplementals to pay for operations, both as a political cudgel against moderates and to conceal the operational costs. The Obama administration is not taking that approach, as that is something he explicitly campaigned against. The FY2011 budget pays for everything using the normal appropriations process, and as a result the cost of military spending compared to 2002-2009 is inflated. This is where the additional $159 billion comes from. As a comparison, 2008 spending for Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded $240 billion, with $150 in the regular budget and over $90 billion as a supplemental.

Bad argument is bad.

[Vidar]

35. K&R.

[blindpig]

36. Irony

I'm sick of irony.

[Mari333]

37. k

[Mari333]

38. k