House Passes $649B Defense Spending Bill

[Feuer Frei!]

The House on Friday overwhelmingly passed a $649 billion defense spending bill that boosts the Pentagon budget by $17 billion and covers the costs of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The strong bipartisan vote was 336-87 and reflected lawmakers' intent to ensure national security, preserve defense jobs across the nation and avoid deep cuts while the country is at war.
While House Republican leaders slashed billions from all other government agencies, the Defense Department is the only one that will see a double-digit increase in its budget beginning Oct. 1.
Amid negotiations to cut spending and raise the nation's borrowing limit, the House rejected several amendments to cut the Pentagon budget, including a measure by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to halve the bill's increase in defense spending.
Scoffing at the suggestion that "everything is on the table" in budget negotiations between the Obama administration and congressional leaders, Frank said, "The military budget is not on the table. The military is at the table, and it is eating everybody else's lunch."
Still, the overall bill is $9 billion less than President Barack Obama sought. The White House has threatened a veto, citing limits on the president's authority to transfer detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and money for defense programs it didn't want.
The measure includes $119 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


SOURCE (http://www.military.com/news/article/house-passes-649b-defense-spending-bill.html)

[mookiemookie]

That is about 1.5x the amount that NASA has spent in its entire existence. But for some reason we can't afford NASA anymore. :nope:

[AngusJS]

That is about 1.5x the amount that NASA has spent in its entire existence. But for some reason we can't afford NASA anymore. :nope:Yup. They specifically want to scrap the James Webb Space Telescope, too. Cuz really, who cares about determining the atmospheres of exoplanets or seeing how solar systems form. :damn:

[mookiemookie]

Couldn't we just put the wars on hold for 2 days to save up enough money to fund NASA for a year? :doh:

[Stealhead]

Keep dreaming on that one.What I find very interesting is the fact that China banks so much to us by doing so they clearly are allowing us to keep fighting in Afghanistan in particular I think they are doing this in the hopes that we expend ourselves or more the general public's willingness desire to continue to support our conflicts also it keeps the Islamic militants eyes on the west and not China over all it is a benefit to China long term no matter how you look at it.Sun Tzu after all was from China they are following his advice rather well and the US is not.

Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate.

There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited.

[gimpy117]

defense spending is part of the reason why this country is going down the tubes. It's truly out of control. The Irony is, everyone knows a bankrupt country can't fight a war no matter what reason.

Yup. They specifically want to scrap the James Webb Space Telescope, too. Cuz really, who cares about determining the atmospheres of exoplanets or seeing how solar systems form. :damn:

you can damn well wait! there's Muslims to be killed!

[Stealhead]

you can damn well wait! there's Muslims to be killed!


If that is the intent then we will be fighting for a long long time seeing as there are something like 1 billion Muslims in the world and they and it is a fastest growing and has been since it started.

What you mean to say is: "There are a lot of a certain type of Muslim to kill but it is very difficult to not upset most of the other ones in each given country and therefore gain more enemies or defeat them at all when we tell them the date that we will be leaving and the very weak side that we picked to control the country will be on there own."

I dont see what good this does the troops risking their lives right now in Afghanistan when the Taliban knows that we will be leaving in 2014.

The same thing happened in Vietnam we told the North when we where leaving and after that they simply waited.