As the New York Times reported on Friday:
With the United States at war with Iran and embroiled in conflicts around the world, the White House asked Congress on Friday to approve about $1.5 trillion for defense in the 2027 fiscal year. If enacted, that amount would set military spending at its highest level in modern history.
They added:
The request, which arrived as part of President Trump's new budget, would amount to a roughly 40 percent increase from what the United States spent on the Pentagon this fiscal year.
The additional and critical piinbt if concern was this:
The administration coupled the proposal with a call for $73 billion in cuts spread across many domestic agencies, including the elimination of key federal health, housing and education programs, some of which serve minority groups and the poor.
The White House asked Congress on Friday to slash domestic spending by about 10 per cent, targeting core government services, including money meant to respond to natural disasters, train new teachers, root out tax fraud, research cures for diseases and develop clean energy technology.
The primary targets are child care, Medicaid, and Medicare.
What is the message that people should note, since our Tory and Reform parties here will no doubt replicate these demands? It is very simple. It is that fascists have the goal of ensuring that their unjustified aggression, aimed at reinforcing their narrative of hate, will be paid for by those least able to bear the cost, and those asked to do so will include those who are being told that this aggression is intended to protect them from the "other" or "enemy" that the fascists have themselves created without justification.
Of all the self-destructive acts anyone can choose right now, voting for far-right parties is probably the most bizarre of all, when the deliberate aim of those leading these parties is to destroy the well-being of those whose support they seek.
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The words of Tony Benn ring true once again. ‘We can always afford a war, why can’t we afford peace?’
How many people have to die, how many people have to suffer before countries change and start working to improve the lives of everyone?
Craig
I see the fingerprints of the Heritage Foundation in this. I first started to notice the HR when looking at Daniel Hannam’s website urging Brexit some years ago.
Trump is IMO a partly, at least, a tool of the vested financial interests. I don’t subscribe to widespread conspiracy theories but conspiracies seek to disguise their origin and influence. These people are becoming blatant about their desires for power.
Trump, meanwhile, seems to be aiming at voters who are nationalistic, evangelical, pro-Zionist, and supporters of masculine superiority. They exist in some numbers but are not a majority and are diminishing as reality begins to bite. These cuts will hurt many of his voters. Truth is ignored.
We have cause for hope and not just because it is Easter.
To add some context, while the existing 2026 US defence budget was greater than the next 7 combined, the increase of $500b requested alone is almost twice that of China’s annual defence budget ($320b according to the SIPRI database).
While you can argue that the US defence budget is bloated and riddled with corruption, that is a staggering number. Even if you assume they want to restock all the weapons they have used in Iran, that’s too much. Quite apart from the fact they are raiding social budgets to partially fund it, there is something even more nefarious at work here I’m sure.
One tiny element of hope over the disastrous Iran war was that perhaps it would at least curb further US adventurism given the strategic failure it is. The increase in spending makes me think it’s just the start. Cuba and Greenland to follow. Who knows where after that. We need to start treating the US like the global threat it has become.
Much to agree with
It should be noted that the calculation uses nominal. It does not account for the difference between purchasing power of Russia, China, and so forth in regards to the US. When accounting for PPP (Using data from 2024), the US budget ($950 billion) is instead roughly analogous to China and Russia combined ($477 billion + $461 billion).
‘…….when the deliberate aim of those leading these parties is to destroy the well-being of those whose support they seek.’
You have reified what the objective of the authoritarian far right always is.
Fascism is always the political science of the concept of sacrifice of the many to preserve the few who are considered to be more ‘worthy’. It chews up and spits out the rest of society in order to achieve that – using false flags like ‘nationalism’ ‘the motherland’ ‘king and country’ etc., to prop up those suffering from pleonexia. To them, the rest of us are nothing but kindling to be used up whenever.
Their treatment of us is just an exercise in ‘beasting’ – to make us angry, bestial and salty for blood and revenge and to embrace Death – our own too. Fascism is the mechanization of Death; those who fall for it are turned into bullets who will be spent for the cause of the elite’s self preservation and discarded like spent shell cases on the battlefield, forgotten, nameless, used.
We have much to teach people about fascism – as well as everything else!