3 ms·

60% of Democrats voting on a defense budget increase [1] more than double the amount Trump proposed? Of course, insta approval, zero public interest. You want

by xster 9y ago

60% of Democrats voting on a defense budget increase [1] more than double the amount Trump proposed? Of course, insta approval, zero public interest. You want to lift Americans out of poverty or provide education? Ridiculous pie in the sky. [1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-house-democrats-just-voted-for-a-defense-budget-far-bigger-than-trumps/#e7df7db6ea0e https://www.forbes.com/sites/eriksherman/2017/07/14/most-hou...

whack 9y ago
> "For the 2017 fiscal year that ends on September 30, the Obama budget called for $582.7 billion, which included a base budget of $523.9 billion and the "overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget" of $58.8 billion. The Trump administration ... requested $574.5 billion in base budget and $64.6 billion in OCO for a total of $639.1 billion... Today, the House passed a $696.5 billion defense bill that makes Trump's look positively reasonable in comparison" The budget increase was ~$110B. Which comes out to ~$360/year for each American citizen. I'm all in favor of cutting military funding, but that's not going to generate nearly enough revenue to fund a meaningful basic-income program.
- xster 9y ago
  Sorry, it was an overly snarky comment. I don't think any basic income proponents are suggesting that it be funded as a purely net-additive expense on the budget. I wasn't necessarily suggesting that we can get basic income while keeping all existing social welfare by cutting other non social welfare related expenses. I'm just saying that a more equitable amount of public interest in a Pentagon that 'lost' 6.5 trillion in funny accounting would be helpful to basic income too, in a supplemental way. I didn't mean to let it exclude discussions on a 'primary' way of funding basic income on the budget.

3 ms·

60% of Democrats voting on a defense budget increase [1] more than double the amount Trump proposed? Of course, insta approval, zero public interest. You want

by xster 9y ago

whack 9y ago
> "For the 2017 fiscal year that ends on September 30, the Obama budget called for $582.7 billion, which included a base budget of $523.9 billion and the "overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget" of $58.8 billion. The Trump administration ... requested $574.5 billion in base budget and $64.6 billion in OCO for a total of $639.1 billion... Today, the House passed a $696.5 billion defense bill that makes Trump's look positively reasonable in comparison" The budget increase was ~$110B. Which comes out to ~$360/year for each American citizen. I'm all in favor of cutting military funding, but that's not going to generate nearly enough revenue to fund a meaningful basic-income program.
- xster 9y ago
  Sorry, it was an overly snarky comment. I don't think any basic income proponents are suggesting that it be funded as a purely net-additive expense on the budget. I wasn't necessarily suggesting that we can get basic income while keeping all existing social welfare by cutting other non social welfare related expenses. I'm just saying that a more equitable amount of public interest in a Pentagon that 'lost' 6.5 trillion in funny accounting would be helpful to basic income too, in a supplemental way. I didn't mean to let it exclude discussions on a 'primary' way of funding basic income on the budget.