Pete Hegseth Confirmed as Defense Secretary

I don't think you're going to get much resistance from the right, when you sleight the Ivy leagues.

Their ',genius' has lost much of its luster, for their wonton disregard of common sense.

We're the party of common sense; y'all are the party of high brow academic smarts.

Perhaps it may soon dawn upon you, that you're affiliated with the wrong party.

 

LOL. God I hate defending trump but according to your own chart, applications and enlistments went up under trump until Covid shut things down in 2020. You self-owned yourself. Congrats LOL.

 

He went to Princeton and majored in… Government. That’s one of them useless woke degrees we keep hearing about.

The odd thing isn’t just that this guy has no experience running an organization, he seems to have very little actual real world work experience period, aside from his military service of course. The most impressive thing is he parlayed his military career into a political run, which he lost, then got a gig on Fox News with nothing apparently in between. Absolutely no experience other than as a media personality for the last 10 years.

Good for him on the TV gig, but in no way is he qualified based on his resume. This is just some weird shit with Trump basing decisions on TV. That being said, I would halfway agree it doesn’t matter. But if there’s some crazy purge of generals, it might matter. Because then you’d have replaced competency with sycophancy.

 

An almost imperceptible increase wiped out by COVID, and this somehow constitutes “rebuilding the military”? That’s definitely not the take for this 40 year chart.

 

I think outside of some DEI programs, the majority of the civilians in the Pentagon know how to wait out a "disuptor" that is only going to be there for two to three years. If he does get confirmed, he is going to need the A Team of undersecretaries and political appointees in the building to combat that and I'm not sure those types are willing to do it under him.

 

Was that a debate question? Was it one last cycle? You think trumph will fix it? LOLOLOLOL!

You're funny. The republicans (that I freakin voted for) took a $262 BILLION budget surplus and put us in a 20 year war putting us tens of trillions in debt. You act like there still are actually fiscal conservatives out there. What party has been the war mongers? Who are the smart ones? Good Lord people.

 

I’m optimistic he will reduce the deficit. Musk is going to expose moronic waste in government, and the budget is going to be slashed. Sure, he’ll get carried away and slash needed items and departments, too, but the deficit should take that needed bite.

Then, slowly, people will realize what was taken from them, and vote accordingly. But maybe we do need a sharp kick in the butt to dramatically reduce gross waste.

 

Mabe Warren Buffet has it right? We had a strong middle class when corporations paid between 30 and 70%. But this was Mr Buffet's take:


In the video clip, Buffett said:

We don't mind paying taxes at Berkshire, and we are paying a 21% federal rate. If we send in a check like we did last year, we sent in over $5 billion to the US federal government. And if 800 other companies had done the same thing, no other person in the United States would have had to pay a dime of federal taxes, whether income taxes, no Social Security taxes, no estate taxes, no… . It's open down the line.

 

The Iraq war direct costs were between 757 Billion, and 1.1 Trillion. But here's some perspective from CBS (a source I presume you would find ... acceptable):

Since the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government has spent $2.2 trillion to finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to figures from Brown University's Costs of War Project. Yet that sum — which amounts to roughly 10% of the the country's total gross domestic product — only reflects upfront costs. ​

Including the cost of interest on those wars will add an additional $2.1 trillion by 2030. And through 2050, the interest alone is forecast to top $6.5 trillion — even if war spending had theoretically stopped in 2019, according to research published last year from Heidi Peltier, director of the "20 Years of War" Project at Boston University's Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future.​

Americans could owe $6.5 trillion for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq — and that's just the interest
​

Article was written in '21. 2.2 Trillion, for wars that went from '03 to '21.

We pissed away over 3 Trillion in '20, to shut down for like 2 weeks for Covid:



...and continued the stupidity into Biden's presidency.

_____________________________


When W. let office, the debt was less than 10 Trillion; still quite manageable, against our GDP.

When Barry left office, it was over 20 Trillion.

When Trump left office, it was at approximately 28 Trillion--which includes the Covid stupidity.

In Biden's 4 years, he added another touchdown, and brought it to 35 Trillion--36 by the time he leaves office--with grandiose ideas of adding copious amounts more, on top of his Green New Scam.

Only one side is actually talking about trying to reign in the spending, and....

It's not the dems.

...and the idea of brining in business guys like Musk and Ramaswamy, I think is a fantastic start.

 

Whatever they cut will be more than offset by lost revenues from tax cuts. They will not reduce the deficit.

 

Saying it’s all the Dems isn’t accurate.

Firstly, Congress is responsible for passing federal budgets and tax cuts, though they work with the President. Here’s a look at the historical deficits, chart below:

• Notice the high deficit in 2009 and 2010 as we came out of the worst recession since the Great Depression. The 2008 Great Recession cost trillions, and it can be argued that Bush’s deregulation policies and failure to act on warnings exacerbated the issue.
• The deficit decreased year over year during Obama’s last four years.
• Under Trump, it began increasing again, reaching just under $1 trillion per year before the pandemic hit. There is an argument Trump’s handling of the pandemic made it worse and more costly.
• Deficit spending continued after the pandemic, largely driven by tax cuts enacted under Trump.
• Trump promised even more tax cuts in his 2d term. This will increase deficit spending.

• Elon Musk has promised big spending cuts, but it’s unclear how he’ll coordinate with Congress. If additional tax cuts are implemented, ‘musk’ spending cuts will be to be $2.0 - $3T/yr. Such cuts would push the economy into a recession. Therefor level of cuts won’t go thru so deficit spending will continue under Trump with his tax cuts.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that Nikki Haley is the only candidate I’ve heard speaking aggressively about addressing the deficit



U.S. government - Budget surplus or deficit 2029 | Statista

 

Still doesn’t mean there’s not volumes of waste that can be eradicated by a pen.

 

There will be an objective bottom line — either the deficit shrinks or it doesn’t. You talk about the tax cuts, I see the exorbitant costs needed to effectuate the plan to deport illegal immigrants, a plan which will cost in the trillions (assuming things like the numbers Trump claims are accurate, that there is a means and method to find the illegals, a means and method to transport them (and feed, medically treat, and clothe them), and find a place to send them them to).

 

So it's right now at $6.5 trillion, just in interest.

I hated going into more debt to fix what W did. The ball-out of the auto industry ended up making money because they actually paid us back with interest. It was like living pay check to pay check and your A/C goes out. You have a credit card with enough room to pay for it, so you use it. Trump spent tons of money on the pandemic too, it had to be done. It cost money to not tank the economy into a depression and at the same time tank other countries. Trumphs tax break in a good economy was a waste. We need income not a reduction in income. If you are in debt, do you look for ways to cut your income?

The war was expensive and it shouldn't have happened. All the hand ringing over war this time, and it is the republicans who have put us into the last two where we had boots on the ground where we lost significant amounts of soldiers.

Biden and Obama had to spend money to fix the disaster W and trumph left us in. Just once, I'd like to see the republicans forgo dumping regulations that are important to our economic stability and keep us safe from war.

 

when an economy gets positive reviews and discussion, its needs an asterisk if there is deficit.

i.e. our current economic numbers look good, but we also have a $1.8T annual deficit.

 

Fair points Pit.

I'll only point out that I didn't say "it's all the dems"--I said the dems aren't saying boo about cutting back on spending, and even making overt inclinations about increasing spending, while the only talk of reducing spending, is coming from the GOP--and Trump overtly taking Musk (and Vivek Ram'y) up on his DOGE proposal, and giving it the dignity of official sanction from the office of the POTUS, represents an actual step in that direction--"putting his money where his mouth is at" as they say.

It's a positive and wecome development that oughtnt br mocked, but celebrated, from both sides of the aisle.

 

Yes, any waste they eliminate would be more than offset by the costs of mass deportations.

 

First of all, it's 6.5 Trillion through 2050 with interest. 2.2 actually spent.

We spent more actual, real money on covid in 2 years, than Iraq and Afghanistan combined, with thst interest. The interest on the covid spending will be astronomical.

Fwiw, I absolutely did not support that covid spending orgy, and was very critical of Trump for that. I understand the pressure and the mitigating circumstances, but we still went stupid overboard.

Trump gets taxed for the covid crap, regardless of mitigation.

Same goes with Biden, but Biden gets less mitigation, and still out spent Trump, and was looking to up the ante even more (ditto Kamala), with nary a peep about so much as tapping the brakes.

...and of course, its a multiple choice either/or question.

TBL--the past is what it is--cant change it--but Trump running with Elon Musk's proposal, tapping Vivek Rams'y as co-chair on this board (or however it will be structured), and further extending the dignity of the office of the POTUS, is a serious step in the right direction in the spirit of accountability.

 

Speaking of the amount of the Covid stimulus.
Trump suggests he won't sign relief bill into law unless Congress makes changes including increasing stimulus checks to $2,000