Congress // Current TV

Senate Votes To Remove Reference To Tea Party From Federal Law, House Promises Fight

House TP soon to be on a roll

mfb1949
added this
5 days ago
|
30 comments

What do we actually spend on national security? A mindboggling one trillion dollars a year

As the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American war-making and war preparations fly ever more regularly under the radar. There has, for instance, been much discussion about the Obama administration’s policy “pivot” to Asia -- the only warlike act in the region so far has, however, been a little noted drone strike in the Philippines. At the same time, remarkably little attention has been paid to a massive build-up of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and -- though both seem to be underway (and connected) -- who talks about the “pivot” to the Western Indian Ocean or the “pivot” to Africa?

For those keeping a careful eye out, U.S. drone (and air) bases in the region have been proliferating -- in the Seychelles Islands, in Ethiopia, and at an unidentified site on the Arabian peninsula, among other places. Recently, however, Wired’s Danger Room website reported that an Italian blogger had put the pieces together and offered impressive evidence of a larger war-making effort in the region, involving not only drones but F-15E fighter jets, possibly being used to bomb Yemen. Meanwhile, there are U.S. drone strikes in Yemen almost daily and at least 20 special forces operatives are reportedly now on the ground there, helping direct some of the fighting and even taking casualties.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Africa Command (Africom), set up in 2007, has been gaining clout. In 2011, 100 special operations troops, mainly Green Berets, were moved into Central Africa, officially to aid in the hunting down of Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Recently, it was reported that a brigade of regular U.S. combat troops will soon be assigned to the command and given training duties throughout the region. Meanwhile, the U.S. has been organizing a proxy war, supported by drone attacks, against al-Shabab rebels in Somalia, using Ugandan, Kenyan, and other African troops as those proxies. And more’s afoot. It’s just that, if you weren’t an obsessive news watcher, you would have next to no way of knowing that any of this was taking place.

War American-style, already long detached from the lives of most Americans, is growing more so: ever more secret, presidential, and beyond the control of, or accountability to, citizens or Congress. In only one way is this not true: we taxpayers still fork over the massive sums that make our perpetual state of war and war state possible. As Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer of the invaluable National Priorities Project report, the expense of all this is blowing a hole in your wallet and our treasury. To offer but one small example, if someday soon the Pakistani/Afghan border is reopened to U.S. war supplies, you will be paying the Pakistanis $1,500-$1,800 for every truck that crosses it, at an estimated cost of at least $1 million a day (with other "fees" likely). And yet, it’s remarkable how little Americans know about what’s coming out of their pockets when the subject is “national security,” or where exactly it’s all going. Which is why we need Hellman and Kramer (and their new book, A People’s Guide to the Federal Budget) to keep us in the loop. Tom

War Pay
The Nearly $1 Trillion National Security Budget
By Chris Hellman and Mattea Kramer

Recent months have seen a flurry of headlines about cuts (often called “threats”) to the U.S. defense budget. Last week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives even passed a bill that was meant to spare national security spending from future cuts by reducing school-lunch funding and other social programs.

Here, then, is a simple question that, for some curious reason, no one bothers to ask, no less answer: How much are we spending on national security these days? With major wars winding down, has Washington already cut such spending so close to the bone that further reductions would be perilous to our safety?

In fact, with projected cuts added in, the national security budget in fiscal 2013 will be nearly $1 trillion -- a staggering enough sum that it’s worth taking a walk through the maze of the national security budget to see just where that money’s lodged.

If you’ve heard a number for how much the U.S. spends on the military, it’s probably in the neighborhood of $530 billion. That’s the Pentagon’s base budget for fiscal 2013, and represents a 2.5% cut from 2012. But that $530 billion is merely the beginning of what the U.S. spends on national security. Let’s dig a little deeper.

The Pentagon’s base budget doesn’t include war funding, which in recent years has been well over $100 billion. With U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq and troop levels falling in Afghanistan, you might think that war funding would be plummeting as well. In fact, it will drop to a mere $88 billion in fiscal 2013. By way of comparison, the federal government will spend around $64 billion on education that same year.

Add in war funding, and our national security total jumps to $618 billion. And we’re still just getting started.

More at the linkAs the country’s big wars on the Eurasian continent wind down, American... more

JanforGore
added this
5 days ago
|
11 comments

Extending Bush Tax Cuts Front and Center on GOP’s Summer Agenda

So, while they’ve jettisoned any kind of relief for students saddled with... more

StewSteve
added this
2 days ago
|
0 comments

Test Your Knowledge of the Federal Reserve (15 Questions)

15 multiple choice questions to test your knowledge of the basic fuctions of the... more

maasanova
added this
5 days ago
|
1 comment

Why Congress Insists On Putting The Economic Recovery In Jeopardy

If Congress passed legislation to fund the federal government for a year, then scattered to the four winds, the United States would find itself in recession sometime in 2013.

That’s what the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office concluded in a Tuesday report, meant to alert elected officials to the dangers of allowing the country to fall off the “fiscal cliff.” That’s shorthand for allowing all of the Bush tax cuts and the payroll tax holiday, extended unemployment benefits, and Medicare physician reimbursement rates to expire; and to allow spending on domestic and defense programs to be cut indiscriminately. All of these things will happen automatically at the beginning of the year if Congress does nothing.

Budget deficits would fall dramatically, but at the expense of hundreds of thousands or millions of jobs at a time when the country’s current economic maladies are just beginning to heal. By contrast, protecting the recovery likely means large budget deficits will persist for quite some time.

If there were an obvious way around this conundrum you’d think Congress would’ve taken it. In reality, according to policy experts and economists of a wide range of ideological leanings there is an obvious way around this conundrum — and yet Congress isn’t taking it.

You can summarize the easy approach as “stimulus now, fiscal restraint later.” CBO hinted at this approach in its report.

“[I]f lawmakers changed fiscal policy in late 2012 to remove or offset all of the policies that are scheduled to reduce the federal budget deficit by 5.1 percent of GDP between calendar years 2012 and 2013…CBO estimates, the growth of real GDP in calendar year 2013 would lie in a broad range around 4.4 percent, well above the 0.5 percent projected for 2013 under current law,” the report reads. “However, eliminating or reducing the fiscal restraint scheduled to occur next year without imposing comparable restraint in future years would reduce output and income in the longer run relative to what would occur if the scheduled fiscal restraint remained in place.”

In other words Congress could promote real growth by keeping deficits high now, and avoid the future downside risks of large, structural budget deficits by enacting sequential legislation to reduce deficits that won’t take effect until the economy’s growing at a decent clip.

“I think we should pass a very tough deficit reduction plan now and provide for it to trigger when the economy has reached like three percent growth for a few quarters,” Bill Clinton told guests at the Pete Peterson Fiscal Summit a week ago.

Even Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke — a Republican, who for institutional reasons is constrained from providing specific policy recommendations — has outlined a similar approach.If Congress passed legislation to fund the federal government for a year, then... more

FreeSpiritMuse
added this
5 days ago
|
1 comment

American Propaganda: It’s Not Just for Foreigners Anymore

Be afraid. Be very afraid. This would be a glorified form of astroturfing, which is... more

StewSteve
added this
6 days ago
|
0 comments

Women on Parade: GOP Launches Women’s Policy Panel (VIDEO)

The GOP thinks they can parade all 24 of their female members in congress out for a... more

StewSteve
added this
7 days ago
|
0 comments

The Secret Weapon Lobbyists Use to Ruin Your Health

Story at-a-glance A common form of bribery in the Halls of Congress is to secretly... more

rodstradamus
added this
8 days ago
|
1 comment

NDAA Authorizes War Against Iran

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich.U.S. Representative from Ohio's 10th District... more

maasanova
added this
10 days ago
|
1 comment

Rewritten Headlines: Dale Earnhardt Jr. to Robot Arm

Tony D rewrites today's headlines.

TonyDiGerolamo
added this
11 days ago
|
0 comments

The Dysfunction is Republican

Common wisdom, along with most main stream media outlets, will tell you that... more

TomCat1948
added this
12 days ago
|
0 comments

House Approves HR 4970, Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization - Here's How Your Pol Voted

Roll call

mfb1949
added this
12 days ago
|
0 comments

Kucinich Announces Retirement From Congress

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the anti-war Ohio congressman, announced Wednesday that he will... more

FreeSpiritMuse
added this
12 days ago
|
38 comments

2012 Election: How to Turn Congress Blue (CHART)

Our handy 2012 Election chart showing the House and Senate races to watch (and... more

StewSteve
added this
13 days ago
|
0 comments

Filibuster reform and the zombie apocalypse | Scholars and Rogues

Once I was a believer in the time-honored Senate filibuster tradition, although by... more

hoosierdaddy
added this
13 days ago
|
0 comments

Separation of Church and State? Not if Evangelicals Get Their Way

Imagine the uproar from these ridiculous, narrow-minded dipshits if an Atheist got up... more

StewSteve
added this
13 days ago
|
0 comments

TIME TO TAKE CHARGE

I think it is high time we all stand up and tell the bunch of jokers we call Congress... more

ebdotkom
added this
15 days ago
|
0 comments

No War on Women? Our Big A** Chart Says You’re Wrong!

NOTE: No caterpillars were harmed in the making of this infographic. -------- No War... more

StewSteve
added this
18 days ago
|
0 comments

House Votes to Eliminate U.S. Census

The U.S. Census is a necessary tool of government, and has been in place since 1790... more

StewSteve
added this
19 days ago
|
2 comments

DON'T JUST SIGN IT, SPREAD IT!

Let the people's will prevail.... more

ebdotkom
added this
21 days ago
|
1 comment

select your country

Community Spotlight

TAGS

tagged w/ Congress

top videos

find current on tv

find current online

recent comments

© 2012 Current TV, LLC All Rights Reserved

the basics

follow us online

tools

stay in touch

© 2012 Current TV, LLC
All Rights Reserved