https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/trump-budget-military.html?ref=politics
I assure you that this article from the New York Times is NOT fake news. Trump plans on increasing military spending by $54 billion at the expense of programs like Social Sceurtiy and agencies like the EPA. This amount of spending is absolutely absurd, even if it is there to "protect United Sates citizens".
Where do you think money should be spent? Is a $54 billion increase for the military too big, too small, or just right. Should congress approve this budget? When will the military be big enough?
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"This budget follows through on my promise to keep Americans safe,” he said, calling it a “public safety and national security” budget that will send a “message to the world in these dangerous times of American strength, security and resolve.”
ReplyDeleteMr. Trump, there are other ways to strengthen public safety and security. There are other ways to prove to the rest of the world that America is strong. I do not believe that investing this much money in the military is one of them. It was mentioned in the article that spending this much money on the military would mean that spending for others would have to be seriously cut. So what department would that be? With the type of people Trump has nominated to run his departments, I fear that cut would be in something like education. If run correctly and if well-invested in, our department of education could seriously improve. However, we clearly now live in a world where you don't have to have accomplished really anything relevant to run a country, so I guess we don't value education as much. If that much money is going to go anywhere, I feel it should go there. The smarter we are, the better we will be at everything else. Simply having more men and spookier weaspons doesn't necessarily make us better at fighting.
Additionally, I worry that Trump wouldn't hesitate to make something like a mandatory draft if we were to enter another war/a war closer to home. He seems to be all about going back to "when America was great", so what if more devotion to the military means forcing men to go again?
I think this increase in spending is a bad idea in general, and it frightens me even more now that we have this person as our commander in chief.
TBH: When are we going to start the discussion that Social Security is going to run out by the time we'll all need it and how all that tax money we pay to the government will never benefit us?
ReplyDeleteOh whatever... More Trump articles!!
It's certainly confusing: Trump promising Reagan-like tax cuts while also trying to increase spending. That seems like a contradiction to me. How much does he want to cut these preexisting programs by? You can't just pull the plug on people who need assistance, Donny! Programs like social security (for the time being) and medicare help people who are currently relying on the government in a time of desperation and need. Do we really need that much more military funding? What would it be used for? Specifications, in this case, seem necessary.
Unlike a business that can go bankrupt and just fade away, America is a country with billions of people living in it. Plunging this country into even MORE debt that the previous two administrations would be catastrophic.
Lets just hope Trump runs the country better than his casinos! *buh dum tiss*
Increasing the spending on military, as Ian said, is incredibly absurd. The US spends more on defense than the next seven countries combined! Why do we need to spend any more!? Anyway, the majority of everything Trump says or proposes has been broad ideas without details. Honestly, I am really hoping that Trump will not be idiotic with U.S. money. Obviously he portrays himself as a dunce, but hopefully he has learned a thing or two about money from his years as a business man, and he won't plunge us into more dept.
DeleteI find it hard to believe that any fiscal conservative can support such a measure. It is not possible to drastically cut taxes, not cut overall spending, and still contain the debt.
ReplyDeleteI think that an increase in funding for the military is not a good idea. The United States already spends by far the most on its military than any other country. Even people in the military say that there is prodigal spending that ought to be cut. That's not to say that other federal programs are efficient, but that this new funding is unlikely to help the situation. Furthermore, programs concerning the environment, education, and diplomacy do a lot to help everyday Americans and promote American soft power, which is why I don't think Congress should pass such a budget. Although I see the need to keep America safe and to control spending, I don't think that this budget's new proposals will achieve that. Also as the article mentions, Trump promised not to cut Social Security and Medicare, which comprise large chunks of the budget. If he cares about maintaining his promise and this budget, this proposal will be hard to execute.
What's the point anymore? We have the greatest defense budget two times over our nearest competition, China, and yet we still are suffering international and domestic terror incidents. Throwing money at an issue or a topic doesn't come close to solving it, but apparently this is just Trump's way of dealing with our country's matter of defense like any other problem he's had in his life, by using more money. Why don't we spend that money somewhere else, like in the sciences or the social services? Why not use that funding to improve our infrastructure and build for the future of our people? Or, how about we keep things simple and see if the Republicans can put their money where their mouth is by actually trying to deal with the national debt?
ReplyDeleteI guess that would require the Donald to do something useful and reasonable for once in his life, so I guess that won't change any time soon. Maybe instead of just spending more money, we should find a way to use the money we have more efficiently, and spend the extra money to deal with other more important (but less direct) problems.
While I strongly believe maintaining a powerful military is vital to American interests and security around the world, this transfer of discretionary spending money to defense is a very poor idea. The current U.S. military budget is perfectly adequate to maintain a powerful military. In fact, the U.S. military has been consistently ranked as the strongest in the world in recent years. Would Trump rather satisfy his base than maintain the nation's waterways and necessary entitlement programs for senior citizens? This discretionary spending would be much better used to maintain basic environmental and social welfare programs. Any money left over could be used to improve the nation's infrastructure or to provide training and financial help to workers who have been hurt by outsourcing.
ReplyDeleteHoly guacamole! 54 billion dollars! We already spend the most money on military in comparison to literally every other country, so this huge boost is total malarkey. I agree with all the previous posts. We should be putting our money elsewhere; it does not make sense for a person who wants to cut taxes to also increase sending; Social Security is already messy and we do not need to be pulling our money away from it; we should use the money to improve domestic problems.
ReplyDeleteTrump has done a fantastic job at making many Americans fearful of the world around us. The increase in size and spending of an American military will make some Americans feel more secure, but at the same time, the increase will make their extreme feelings seem more legitimate—and I don’t know if that is a good thing at all. We are heading down a road towards isolation, which is never a good thing, especially in our global economy. Having Americans begin to believe that we need a larger army because the world is dangerous and it’s us against them will not lead to a positive change for our country or our global relationships.
Our military is the best in the world already and we are currently the most feared nation because of the economic and physical power we posses. A 54 billion dollar increase in our military spending is a waste and is also very tacky. Sad!
At least Trump realizes $54 billion is a lot of money (no small loan!), saying it's "one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history." What scares me, however, is that he realizes how grandiose that much of an increase is and yet exclaims that he's proud of it. Trump claimed he would be a fiscally conservative president who would undue the economic waste in Washington, yet this seems like quite the opposite. Relocating exorbitant amounts of funds from agencies like the EPA seems wrong, and though I think a strong military is important it doesn't seem like this is a time where that much of a hike up in budget is necessary.
ReplyDeleteU.S. military expenditures are roughly the size of the next seven largest military budgets around the world, combined. Our defense budget is $581,000,000,000 and President Trump wants to increase that by $54 billion. That's absurd. The United States military has become little more than a private army for big oil companies under the guise of "stopping terrorism." Terrorism is never going to simply stop being a thing. If our government really wanted to combat terrorism effectively, it would invest that $54 billion in first responder services so as to minimalize damages and casualties of terror attacks. Or we could use the $54 billion to purchase 54 million ponies for American citizens (taking into account that the average cost of a suitable first pony is $1000), which in my opinion, is a vastly superior option if we're trying to decide how to waste $54 billion dollars. Or better yet, with the same money, you could buy more than 54 billion rubber chickens from eBay. Food for thought.
ReplyDeleteI think 54 billion dollars is a couple billion too much. Instead of investing in already the largest and most expensive military in the world, why not invest in education, healthcare, and other necessities. It should be a wake up call when our education system is so behind in some areas that it is up to rappers and private citizens to fund education instead of the government. I also don't understand where Trump plans to get the money for this from, or what else he will cut in order to do this. He prides himself on being a businessman, yet anyone with a bit of intelligence would know not to increase our budget by such an absurd amount when we are still in debt.
ReplyDeleteOur military is the best in the world and has been for a while, so I don't see why Donald Trump felt the need for 54 billion dollars. This country is in debt and Trump's irresponsible spending is not going to help that. With tax cuts and increased spending, our debt is not going to go away, in fact it will keep increasing until who knows when. Worst of all, Trump boasts so much about how he's financially responsible and a fiscal conservative, but this spending proves that he's not what he says he is, and he doesn't really know what he's doing.
ReplyDeleteA $54 billion increase in military spending is way too much. While a strong military helps in keeping our country safe, the defense budget is already so many times higher than the rest of the world's defense budget. The money should be spent in other fields that provide immediate benefits to American interests such as the EPA and education. Furthermore, increasing the military funding will not help cut down our country's debt and cutting small programs such as PBS will not be able to offset this.
ReplyDeleteI am sure the military is doing juuuuust fine and would agree that an extra $54 billion is $54 billion too much. Maybe we should dust off our diplomacy skills instead of spending another $54 billiiiiiiion on the military. Perhaps we could spread the wealth around between the government agencies/departments that don't already have a ginormous budget. There have to be enough obstacles in place to keep too many of these proposed cuts from actually happening. However, on the off-chance that Congress does approve the budget, at least we can cheer on the armed forces as we all slowly die from air pollution and dirty water. (Pretty, pretty please don't hurt the EPA.)
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think that a 54 billion dollar cut to the military would be far more appropriate, considering we already spend 600 billion dollars on the military alone. Considering we are not in an active war, and we spend more on our military than the next 7 countries combined, I do not believe that pushing the budget to 650 million dollars will solve any problems. While he and others can argue that it improves safety, I believe that more efficiently spending the money we have in the program we have already would fix the problem more completely, and we wouldn't have to make deep cuts. Things like the EPA and the department of Education keep our people safer on a daily basis, and also improve the public's life more than the military does. If Trump wants to remain in the favorability of the American people, I would suggest that rather than cutting vital programs, he cuts the most bloated program in our budget, and spends the money on improving lives, not flexing muscles and inspiring fear in the public.
ReplyDeleteA 54 billion dollar increase to the military budget is unnecessary and wasteful. Let's check history for a moment: over the past century, what percentage of the time has the military been used for the safety and security of US citizens? What percentage of time is it meddling in foreign conflicts with which it shouldn't be involved? This is NOT to say that the military is unimportant - it is incredibly important. 54 billion dollars could be put to a lot better use domestically, ensuring the safety of citizens within the country. We should be fighting the war on poverty, the war on drugs, and the war on pollution domestically just as much as military affairs. Domestic organizations and institutions have a MUCH more direct effect on citizens daily than do foreign threats, especially since we are not in an active war. A strong country should be measured by how it takes care of its citizens, not its ability to nuke (metaphorically) another country's citizens.
ReplyDeleteIn all truthfullness, Trump or not, I can't find a good reason to increase our military spending. We should be looking for ways to make allies, not to fight war. We wouldn't need to fight wars if we just keep good relations. Then again, with the grace and charisma of our current president, perhaps this is a good idea. However, this money would have been better spent on education or climate change. Our military is currently in enough shape to defend ourselves or fight in a war. In short, this budget increase shouldn't be necessary (perhaps cuts would be more appropriate), but with the direction our foreign relations are headed, maybe it's needed for now.
ReplyDeleteMilitary spending is one way to protect Americans, but 54 billion dollars just seems like overkill. War isn't the only thing that could kill us. Climate change and global warming, along with those who don't believe it, are also killing us. And there are still plenty of wars to be fought- just not with other countries. Truth be told, our first world country is an utter disaster; we don't even take care of our own citizens, we can't be focusing on what another country might do. Our country won't be strong unless we unite to fix our internal problems first.
ReplyDelete