It was NEVER about the cost.

[kpete]

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Follow the money.

Apparently, conservatives how found a way to filter military budgets to their private causes. Someone with math abilities should audit how that money gets distributed. I bet we'll find that there is a lot of spending that is untraceable.

[Midnight Writer]

14. I recall in Sept 2001, Defense Sec. Don Rumsfield announced that $2 trillion of defense spending

could not be accounted for, per a Bush Administration audit.

Then, September 11.

The story about Defense money disappearing disappeared.

[Baitball Blogger]

18. +1

Thank God that sob is dead.

[kewhawaii]

37. Bingo!

I have thought about that day many times.

[Ford_Prefect]

21. It is called Money Laundering. Tax money is paid to MIC firms then filters to the various campaign

funds for legislators, or into trust funds in their children's name, or into discreet accounts or other investments conveniently managed by off-shore firms. The larger the Military Spending Bill is the more the vig grows in proportion.

In some instances there are also bonuses paid by clients like Qatar or Saudi Arabia who have special relationships within the MIC, the Pentagon, and the State Department.

[CousinIT]

2. Why are the dates of these tweets never on these screenshots?

I like to look them up ON twitter and retweet the original tweet. Hard to do when there is no date displayed on the screenshot.

Ah well.

[kpete]

7. Here you go CousinIT:

Link to tweet

?s=20

[CousinIT]

17. THANK YOU kpete!

[2Gingersnaps]

30. More the merrier!

I did too, Thank you kpete!

[Irish_Dem]

3. Absolutely, cost of the BBB is not the issue at all.

The real issues are quite obvious.

[calimary]

5. Republicans DON'T want to help you.

That’s the reason why. In six words.

They don’t believe in it, don’t want to do it, don’t want to pay for it. If you’re in need, so what? Tough! You’re on yer own.

And meanwhile, they’ll be the first and loudest to claim how “Christian” they are.

[Irish_Dem]

6. The GOP wants unlimited power and wealth.

They must bring down the Dems and Biden to get what they want.

[Rebl2]

8. No joke

[NickB79]

9. And let's be clear: 1.9T was over 10 YEARS of spending

[Celerity]

10. The US federal government spent over $6.1 trillion in 2020, which dwarfs the BBB per year spend

and the BBB was likely close to revenue neutral, especially if you binned most of that almost 300 billion usd SALT cap giveaway to the richest 10, 20% (and the majority went to the top 1%, ie people whose net worth STARTS at $11 million)



https://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/2020/09/federal-government-conclude-fiscal-2020-record-spending/168884/

Even without data from the month of September, the Treasury Department reports total federal spending exceeded $6 trillion for the first time.

[Jon King]

11. Manchin just plunged 3 million kids back into poverty.

That is the thing Dems need to harp on over and over, the child tax credit.

[onecaliberal]

12. No shit. You'd have to suspend reality and common sense to believe otherwise.

This is what I have been saying for 10
Months.

[twodogsbarking]

13. Thou shalt not question the military.

Wave your flag and do a little dance.

[IronLionZion]

15. Remember all that inflation from war spending?

Me neither

[BannonsLiver]

16. America is mostly governed by rural shit heels.

That’s a big reason why we’re doomed.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

32. This 👆

I would add,self serving,greedy,
arrogant,narcissistic,
selfish,evil hearted,abusive,
hierarchical, authoritatian, many flavored haters, bullying,manipulative,
power hungry,control freaks,freedom hating, democracy hating,
causing and getting off on the suffering of anyone they don't like,
Sadistic,over wealthy worthless criminal ,lazy,asshole, rural shitheels .

[ancianita]

36. They are what serves corporate America. While you're at it, add white supremacist corporate tools.

It takes a lot of sellouts plus one Manchin Big Coal tool to make a majority, doesn't it.

[Blue Owl]

19. K&R

[DownriverDem]

20. It's time again

to find some rich Dems who will finance AM stations to get our message out. 40 years of RW views is why we just can't get folks to wake up.

[LymphocyteLover]

23. There's one announced recently doing this but we need a lot more and it will take time

which sadly we don't have

[LymphocyteLover]

22. Is it a perfect circle? I thought most Dems voted for the military bill?

[Hotler]

24. BBB money goes directly to the people, it's harder to steal and

it's small potatoes to Wall St.

[Mr. Ected]

25. With the GOP it's NEVER about what they claim it to be

A shame our press doesn't pursue these things rather than accepting every lame excuse in the book and perpetuating it.

[dlk]

26. Manchin is Christmas Grinch!

We can’t have a both a plutocracy and a democracy. It can only be either/or and Manchin, along with the Republicans, has made his choice clear.

[Poiuyt]

27. The "win at all costs" Republicans will do anything to make Biden look bad

Even if it's bad for America

[CrispyQ]

28. The military bill was $8 trillion?

Oh, I see.

Bloated defense budget passes easily but Congress fights over safety net programs
Oct. 1, 2021, 12:19 PM MDT
By Michael A. Cohen, MSNBC Opinion Columnist

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/bloated-defense-budget-passes-easily-congress-fights-over-safety-net-n1280568

snip...

Joe Biden once famously said “Don't tell me what you value, show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.” Over the past week, Congress has depressingly proved the president was on to something.

Though Democrats are tying themselves in knots over a 10-year $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package -- and Republicans are uniformly opposing it -- on Sept. 23, the House of Representatives, with little rancor or controversy, passed a $768 billion package of goodies for the Pentagon.

Assuming the defense budget doesn’t go down (and it rarely does), over 10 years that would mean almost $8 trillion to the Pentagon. That would be more than double the cost of Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda, which has been billed as a historic expansion of America’s social safety net.

Even in 2021, as Congress is considering historic pieces of progressive legislation, Washington still values defense dollars -- for wars that America shouldn’t and likely won’t fight -- over prioritizing the needs of the American people.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

33. Corrupt rich people

Gotta have a military to protect thier stuff and thier money.

[llashram]

29. uuumpf

[Scalded Nun]

34. Disservice to the people...Yes. But service to their corporate masters for certain.

[Shoonra]

35. If the diagram is a perfect circle .....

.... then it's not a Venn Diagram but rather a Euler Diagram.

[McKim]

38. Thank You for the Best Thread in Ages!!!!

Thank you for the best thread in ages. This military spending is the gigantic elephant in America's livingroom. The great discussion and the links provided by comments made my day in a dark time as we await the results of our selfishly not sharing vaccines with the rest of the world. A big hug to everyone on this thread. This outrageous spending is the source of our social poverty and suffering in America! Keep talking folks!!!!!