Current Events > Trump suddenly thinks the US' military spending is 'Crazy'

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1069584730880974849

I am certain that, at some time in the future, President Xi and I, together with President Putin of Russia, will start talking about a meaningful halt to what has become a major and uncontrollable Arms Race. The U.S. spent 716 Billion Dollars this year. Crazy!

lmao wat
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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/23/donald-trump-nuclear-weapons-arms-race

Hmmmm
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Obama has been terrible for the military. Were now WEAK. I will make the military great again

Hahahaa Putin keeps pressuring him to weaken us. Isnt this treason already?

The funny thing is all of the warmongers that swear by him and benefited from the military spending gravy train are going to suddenly change their tune as well. Military people will now be for military spending cuts LMAO.

Identity politics (race) is all that matters to redcaps nowadays

its like he completely forgot who's responsible for the current budget.

and i honestly think that's possible and not just him being political. it's honestly within the realm of possibility that he actually forgot because it happened almost a year ago.
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Giant_Aspirin posted...

its like he completely forgot who's responsible for the current budget.

and i honestly think that's possible and not just him being political. it's honestly within the realm of possibility that he actually forgot because it happened almost a year ago.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/961368036782628864

The Budget Agreement today is so important for our great Military. It ends the dangerous sequester and gives Secretary Mattis what he needs to keep America Great. Republicans and Democrats must support our troops and support this Bill!

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/977855968364171264?lang=en

Because of the $700 & $716 Billion Dollars gotten to rebuild our Military, many jobs are created and our Military is again rich. Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/976654851684945920

Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming. Most importantly, got $700 Billion to rebuild our Military, $716 Billion next year...most ever. Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment.

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He's the fucking asshole who inflated its budget
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Trump has shown that he's willing to change his mind. Either that or he's losing his mind. Or a little of both. Either way, I agree with him. We spend way too much money on military in the US.
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Ray_Dorset posted...

He's the fucking asshole who inflated its budget

TBQH we do need an inflated military budget.

How expensive is a Chinese made TV? How expensive is an American-made TV? It probably costs 20 times more to produce something stateside.

Add to that the fact that the military is basically a good old boys network. They lose track of warehouses with 20 thousand pencils routinely (I kid you not) and somehow each pencil costs $20 or something stupid like that.

The fact that we spend 5X what China does (made up figure) doesnt mean we get 5X the stuff, we probably get less or about the same, considering a dollar goes much farther for them and its used much more efficiently.

It would be better to streamline the inefficient, good old boy protecting systems we have in place and control costs (if producing a gun in China costs 1 dollar it should cost us 20 to produce it, and we should just somehow lose a warehouse full of them), but until that happens we indeed have to spend a lot just to keep in the same place

Military budget and spending has always been excessive. If he can cut it down, and redistribute that to other places like medicare, social security, education, and so on, then good on him.

dementia onset is a powerful drug
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CommonStar posted...

Military budget and spending has always been excessive. If he can cut it down, and redistribute that to other places like medicare, social security, education, and so on, then good on him.

Yep.

Unfortunately, the powers that be don't want that.
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We need that military parade tho
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Why are so many people getting wooshed in this topic?

Like this:
CommonStar posted...

Military budget and spending has always been excessive. If he can cut it down, and redistribute that to other places like medicare, social security, education, and so on, then good on him.

He and his Admin are literally responsible for increasing it.
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Putin got to him at G20.
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probably to do with Ukraine
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brestugo posted...

Putin got to him at G20.

remember when Trump said he wouldn't meet with Putin there, then Putin said "fuck that, come here bitch" and they had a meeting?

and cultists want to argue that Putin doesn't own Trump.
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Bio1590 posted...

Why are so many people getting wooshed in this topic?

Like this:
CommonStar posted...

Military budget and spending has always been excessive. If he can cut it down, and redistribute that to other places like medicare, social security, education, and so on, then good on him.

He and his Admin are literally responsible for increasing it.

This. I don't give a fuck what this serial liar claims, he easily could push HIS PARTY to cut spending if he actually cared. He doesn't give a shit though, and knows this is just more fake populist red meat his drones will lap up
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Are Americans going to turn on Trump or blindly support the military-industrial complex like they always do?
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the only country people need to be afraid of is usa
they are the biggest thug
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ModLogic posted...

the only country people need to be afraid of is usa
they are the biggest thug

Worlds policemen doe
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Highwind07 posted...

I remember an article that I posted a few months back on how much the Air Force spends on simple things like a coffee cup for its pilots and it blew my mind on how frivolous the spending goes. Someone pointed out that there were many cases like that and it all had to do with connections and corruption.

That's true for all branches. Even simple things like parts for helos are nuts. Our contracts with certain companies need to be seriously reevaluated.
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Fossil posted...

Highwind07 posted...

I remember an article that I posted a few months back on how much the Air Force spends on simple things like a coffee cup for its pilots and it blew my mind on how frivolous the spending goes. Someone pointed out that there were many cases like that and it all had to do with connections and corruption.

That's true for all branches. Even simple things like parts for helos are nuts. Our contracts with certain companies need to be seriously reevaluated.

This is what happens when your national defense is entrusted to large corporations whose only real goal is turning a profit for their share holders.
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Pretty sure the space military falls under the category of military spending. Crazy!
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Heh. This will be a fun talking point at the holiday gathering of my stepfather's side of the family. A bunch of cousins (military and aspiring to be military) were pro-trump 2 years ago because he was more pro-military than hillary.
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also, a pretty typical pattern for Trump is to cause a disaster and then praise himself for returning things to the status quo.
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sobergermanguy posted...

Are Americans going to turn on Trump or blindly support the military-industrial complex like they always do?

Only the idiots among us still support Trump with any real loyalty
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ImTheMacheteGuy posted...

Heh. This will be a fun talking point at the holiday gathering of my stepfather's side of the family. A bunch of cousins (military and aspiring to be military) were pro-trump 2 years ago because he was more pro-military than hillary.

Oh, you know what the counters will already be. "He's talking about all the WASTEFUL spending and what we spend for other nations and not AMERICA!" That's all they ever say
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Does this mean no space force?
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30+ posts and not one mention that a gigantic amount of money is spent on pay and housing for military.... makes sense as we have the largest military in the world.
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The Great Muta 22 posted...

ImTheMacheteGuy posted...

Heh. This will be a fun talking point at the holiday gathering of my stepfather's side of the family. A bunch of cousins (military and aspiring to be military) were pro-trump 2 years ago because he was more pro-military than hillary.

Oh, you know what the counters will already be. "He's talking about all the WASTEFUL spending and what we spend for other nations and not AMERICA!" That's all they ever say

I actually think they will bitch about him. They weren't pleased about his tax plan at last year's gathering. Basically, their pro-trump points were "his twitter feed is entertaining" which I would say is probably a fair point (I don't twitter, but I believe it)
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ScazarMeltex posted...

This is what happens when your national defense is entrusted to large corporations whose only real goal is turning a profit for their share holders.

We were worst off when we tried to source things in house and had horrible results from endless internal politics and bureaucracy.
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He's saying that it's a shame the U.S. has been forced to spend that much to keep up with other countries that we don't want to become more powerful than us because they are potential threats.
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EdgeMaster posted...

30+ posts and not one mention that a gigantic amount of money is spent on pay and housing for military.... makes sense as we have the largest military in the world.

Only a little over 1/4 of our defense budget goes to pay and benefits. That was years ago, probably even less than that now.

OldSnakeLiveon8 posted...

EdgeMaster posted...

30+ posts and not one mention that a gigantic amount of money is spent on pay and housing for military.... makes sense as we have the largest military in the world.

Only a little over 1/4 of our defense budget goes to pay and benefits. That was years ago, probably even less than that now.

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53624

Only 3.1% of GDP went to Defense in 2017
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KamenRiderBlade posted...

ScazarMeltex posted...

This is what happens when your national defense is entrusted to large corporations whose only real goal is turning a profit for their share holders.

We were worst off when we tried to source things in house and had horrible results from endless internal politics and bureaucracy.

You still have all the internal politics and bureaucracy, you are just paying more for it.
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Trump is just plain dumb, but I don't think military spending would be much if at all different under another president. Regardless, the Pentagon needs to get its act together as they have been terrible with managing money.
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ScazarMeltex posted...

This is what happens when your national defense is entrusted to large corporations whose only real goal is turning a profit for their share holders.

This isn't even remotely close to true.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

ScazarMeltex posted...

This is what happens when your national defense is entrusted to large corporations whose only real goal is turning a profit for their share holders.

This isn't even remotely close to true.

It's partly true: they mostly build and develop new weapons systems, aircraft, etc. and, as a general rule, are not held accountable for cost overruns and the like. Plus, they manipulate their supply chains in such a way as to make outright killing a given project politically painful rather than focusing on efficiency. It works so well Congress orders up tanks and other stuff the military doesn't even want(and they want a lot of stuff).

I would say Trump saying this is a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day, but that would imply Trump is consistent. Regardless, he is correct that our military spending is out of control.

Meanwhile in 2001 Donald Rumsfeld announced there was $2.3 trillion missing from Pentagon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xU4GdHLUHwU" data-time="
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ElatedVenusaur posted...

It's partly true: they mostly build and develop new weapons systems, aircraft, etc. and, as a general rule, are not held accountable for cost overruns and the like. Plus, they manipulate their supply chains in such a way as to make outright killing a given project politically painful rather than focusing on efficiency. It works so well Congress orders up tanks and other stuff the military doesn't even want(and they want a lot of stuff).

I would say Trump saying this is a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day, but that would imply Trump is consistent. Regardless, he is correct that our military spending is out of control.

There is definitely a problem with money and politics and these companies having way too much influence, but what I disagree with is the idea that the national defense itself is entrusted to large corporations. Of course the hardware itself is manufactured by corporations; government can't do that on its own. The same is true over in Europe and elsewhere.
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ScazarMeltex posted...

You still have all the internal politics and bureaucracy, you are just paying more for it.

And we got far worse results because of it along with wasting the time of lots of talented folks who couldn't be bothered to be objective because they wanted to keep their internal jobs secure.
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ElatedVenusaur posted...

It works so well Congress orders up tanks and other stuff the military doesn't even want(and they want a lot of stuff).

That's due to Congress Folks wanting Pork Barrel $ in their states. Not because the Defense Department wanted it.

e.g. The M1 Abrams excess was build orders was because the local politicians didn't want the plant to close, ergo losing jobs for their constituents. The DoD was forced to foot the bill because of local congress folks. Blame the appropriate parties when you start blaming folks. The DoD didn't want excess inventory over what they planned.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

There is definitely a problem with money and politics and these companies having way too much influence, but what I disagree with is the idea that the national defense itself is entrusted to large corporations. Of course the hardware itself is manufactured by corporations; government can't do that on its own. The same is true over in Europe and elsewhere.

Very few Nations make everything themselves when it comes to military hardware. Nation States don't have the time, structure, experience, or proven capability to gather talent / resources to develop the training, recruit competent validated engineers, KEEP those engineers EMPLOYED during down cycles, engineer the hardware, test it, revise it, validate, and source multiple competitors for bids to get lowest prices, etc. They also don't have the ability to pay for the logistics chain, or manage the supply chain, along with develop the training to train the maintenance staff.

There is ALOT going on just to make 1 piece of hardware and keep it working. Especially since things are getting more high tech every year.

It's actually better to let the private industry do this. They are far better at it. We only have to look at the US Army / Marines for lack of follow through to deliver on products / projects and not cancel repeatedly and waste people's time & money by re-starting the process over & over again.

Look how long it takes the USMC to get a replacement for their very old AAV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assault_Amphibious_Vehicle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expeditionary_Fighting_Vehicle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibious_Combat_Vehicle

Or the US Army canceling multiple Modernization programs:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_Combat_Vehicle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Combat_Systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BCT_Modernization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigade_Modernization_Command
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KamenRiderBlade posted...

It's actually better to let the private industry do this. They are far better at it.

I agree. The idea of the federal government trying to manufacture advanced hardware itself is about as unrealistic as it gets.
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Trump doesn't like the Coast Guard, like they don't work their asses off with old equipment.
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Sativa_Rose posted...

I agree. The idea of the federal government trying to manufacture advanced hardware itself is about as unrealistic as it gets.

Do you remember the Army's quest for "Software Defined Radio"?

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2012/06/how-to-blow-6-billion-on-a-tech-project/

They were WAYYY to far ahead of the curve of where feasible technology could be, ergo wasting $6 billion dollars

This is why you need technical people who are in the specific field to tell you what is feasible at that time before trying to implement it.

Otherwise you're going to waste money on a whole lot of nothing.
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