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We funded the military to the tune of $800B but can't be bothered to keep people from falling into poverty due to inability to work (tenants) or bankruptcy (lan
by r00fus 5y ago
We funded the military to the tune of $800B but can't be bothered to keep people from falling into poverty due to inability to work (tenants) or bankruptcy (landlords).
Most other nations had much stronger safety nets than a few one-time payments of a few hundred dollars.
Quite a set of priorities are on display here.
- johncessna 5y agoThe US spends more on social programs than it does on the military.
- r00fus 5y agoSocial security don't count - we pay for that ourselves. What else?
- johncessna 5y agoSure it does. Most of what the feds spend is from money we give them. Here's the breakout of the 2020 budget in picture form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:2020_US_Federal_Budget_Infographic.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/...
- tastyfreeze 5y agoMilitary is one of the few jobs the federal government is Constitutionally obligated to perform. As another reply said, we spend more on welfare programs. Programs which the federal government is not Constitutionally permitted to do.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- evanb 5y ago“Promote the general Welfare” comes immediately after “provide for the common defense” in literally the first sentence of the constitution.
- tastyfreeze 5y agoTaking from the populace and giving to specific individuals is not what was meant by that phrase. General welfare in the Constitution has never meant singling out individuals or groups and providing for them with public funds. Alas, this argument is as old as the Constitution itself. "Madison asserted it amounted to no more than a reference to the other powers enumerated in the subsequent clauses of the same section; that, as the United States is a government of limited and enumerated powers, the grant of power to tax and spend for the general national welfare must be confined to the enumerated legislative fields committed to the Congress. In this view the phrase is mere tautology, for taxation and appropriation are or may be necessary incidents of the exercise of any of the enumerated legislative powers. Hamilton, on the other hand, maintained the clause confers a power separate and distinct from those later enumerated, is not restricted in meaning by the grant of them, and Congress consequently has a substantive power to tax and to appropriate, limited only by the requirement that it shall be exercised to provide for the general welfare of the United States."[1] Congress has the power to spend federal revenue. The responsibilities of Congress are explicitly defined in Section 8 of the Constitution. The first clause of Section 8 does include "provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States". That is for the welfare of the Union, not the individual residents of states. None of the powers of Congress are to distribute funds to individuals with charity programs. In fact, for much of the nations history using public funds for charity was an abhorrent idea. [1]https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI_S8_C1_2/#essay-3 https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI_S8_C1_2/...
- 6510 5y agoThe US gov also has tons of equipment and is decades behind on infrastructure maintenance. It might not be for everyone but the US government could easily employ millions - as they do with the military.