| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
12 Jun 2004 08:11:41 PM |
| Object: |
One trillion dollars budgeted for toys (defense contractor welfare) |
House and Senate versions of the 2005 defense authorization measure
contain a record $68 billion for research and development - 20-percent
above the peak levels of President Reagan's historic defense buildup.
Tens of billions more out of a proposed $76 billion hardware account
will go for big-ticket weapons systems to combat some as-yet-unknown
adversary comparable to the former Soviet Union.
On the Pentagon's wish list are such revolutionary weapons as a
fighter plane that can land on an aircraft carrier or descend
vertically to the ground; a radar-evading destroyer that can wallow
low in the waves like a submarine while aiming precise rounds at enemy
targets 200 miles inland; and a compact "isomer" weapon that could tap
the metallic chemical element hafnium to release 10,000 times as much
energy per gram as TNT.
"We are in a massive train wreck financially," Rep. Curt Weldon,
R-Pa., recently told members of the House Armed Services subcommittee
on tactical air and land forces, which he chairs.
"The time has come to be tough about the way we are spending money on
programs that we cannot see the ability to fund" in later years.
War costs and modernization are expected to drive defense spending to
nearly $500 billion in 2005, $50 billion above 2004.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the long-term price tag
for all the planes, ships and weapons the military services want will
be at least $770 billion above what the Bush administration's
long-term defense plan calls for.
From The Associated Press, 6/12/04:
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/democrat/8904618.htm
Defense bill to top $1 trillion
Congress backs budget heavy on future weapons
By Dan Morgan
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -
As Congress moves ahead with a huge new defense bill, lawmakers are
making only modest changes in the Pentagon's plans to spend well over
$1 trillion in the next decade on an arsenal of futuristic planes,
ships and weapons with little direct connection to the Iraq war or the
global war on terrorism.
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What's a trillion more or less, eh?
Harry
.
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