Where your tax dollars go

Submitted by gjohnsit on Fri, 02/18/2022 - 7:55pm

You've already heard it too many times to count. Cancel student loan debt? We can't afford it. House the homeless? We can't afford it. Medicare For All? We can't afford it! Despite the CBO report clearly finding that Medicare For All would save us billions ($400 billion annually; more than $1,000 per capita) while covering everyone.

So what CAN we afford?
We can afford roughly $1 Trillion a year on military spending while we desperately scour the Earth, in search of monsters to destroy. This is the same Pentagon that can't find $35 Trillion, an amount so large that it equals the entire federal debt of this nation.
Despite this, Congress granted the Pentagon excess funds (in addition to what the Pentagon has requested) of $186 Billion over 7 years, which comes to an average of $26.6 Billion a year.

But I'm not here today to rant about military spending.
Instead I'd like to highlight another budget item that Congress has no problem throwing money at: propaganda.

A tech and manufacturing bill currently moving through Congress allocates $500 million for media outlets to produce journalism for overseas audiences that is critical of China.
Meant to “combat Chinese disinformation,” the bill would direct funding to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, a U.S.-run foreign media service, as well as local outlets and programs to train foreign journalists.
...
If a domestic manufacturing bill seems like the wrong setting for spending on foreign news dispatches, sponsors say it’s a natural fit, since the need to stimulate American production is a matter of competition with Beijing. The sales pitch for reviving global competitiveness has been vivid: The country’s use of forced labor in Xinjiang camps, Nancy Pelosi said last week in a speech on the bill, “hurts American workers who have to compete with slave labor.”

Skipping past the fact that the U.S. currently has a huge slave labor force in our prisons, if we truly cared about our gutted manufacturing base (40 years too late for that), propaganda is the wrong tool to use.
Tariffs would be the correct tool, but they are completely off the table.

The House version of the legislation, which passed last week, is a companion to the Senate’s more hawkish bill on China competition, USICA, which passed in June of last year.
The bills have titles penned by the Foreign Affairs Committees of each chamber. Both include a section named “Supporting independent media and countering disinformation.”
While both bills stipulate that the U.S.-funded media coverage should be “independent,” that mandate could be at odds with other requirements in the legislation. There is, at the very least, an appearance of conflict.

Because you should always "counter disinformation" by using propaganda.
The bill specifically targets China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has allowed China to gain an immense amount of influence in Asia by extending loans and investing in infrastructure. As opposed to the American method for gaining influence by dropping bombs on people.
I would have a problem with this program, except that our news media is already on board with this. Recall that it was in 2012 the government repealed the ban on disseminating propaganda to domestic audiences.

the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which would receive the majority of the media support in this bill package, has a troubled legacy.
A federally funded government agency, USAGM oversees outlets including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia (RFA), and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB). The outlets have sometimes blurred the line between objective news coverage and pro-American propaganda—a distinction that all but dissolved in the Trump years.

Interestingly, China's response is to learn from the examples of Israel and Saudi Arabia: bribe our politicians.
China is now one of the top three foreign lobbyist groups in Washington.

Dropping half a billion dollars is not a big deal for Washington.
Remember when the Pentagon spent $500 million in Syria to train an army to fight the Syrian government, only to have the entire army immediately defect to al-Qaeda?
Just as long as working class Americans don't benefit. There is some unwritten rule in modern politics that the worst possible thing you can do is to help struggling American workers.
OTOH, if you've got a spare $591.5 million to try and swing elections in Mexico, it's perfectly fine to waste that. You don't even have to justify it, because the news media won't even ask about.

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Comments

Submitted by ban nock on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 7:22am

Budget broken out on wiki

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget
Which makes for interesting reading if you are into numbers. We do have a messed up way of dealing with $$ in that the R party (and now to a lesser extent the Ds) stand for not paying taxes. Everyone wants to spend no money on anything, unless it is going to them or their favorite project be it money for the poor or bombs built in one's congressional district.

In filling out my taxes this year I noticed the dollar value attached to my wife's tax free health care is $31K. That's for a family of 4. Everything is pretty much covered except tiny copays. Dental is better than most. Ambulance $25, hospital stay $0, outpatient surgery $100. It's medical care like everyone in the country should get. Non medical unscientific things like acupuncture they simply negotiate a reasonable rate and you pay, they don't spend money on magic.

Kaiser. They eliminated the insurer, and it still costs more than the median per capita income.. Basically there's a lot of people making a lot of money. Everyone from executives, yup even at non profits, to the makers of medical devices they use, the hospital groups they use for major surgery. Lots of money to be made.

One thing that's pretty low is corporate taxes. 1% of gdp.

Voice of America used to be the US slant on the news. Now because they are required to be pretty factual they are one of the better sources. I wonder whatever happened to their budget. People worldwide are starved for news and Voice of America was often the best that could be had other than the BBC. They still broadcast in 40 some languages on short wave but much of it has gone to the net. I used to listen because I lived a long long ways from any phone or electricity let alone the internet.

Submitted by Cassiodorus on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 8:50am

Congress exists to give money to the already-rich.

That's why they're there.

—

'French theory is a product of US cultural imperialism." -- Gabriel Rockhill

Submitted by The Liberal Moonbat on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 11:04am

In that case...

@Cassiodorus ...time for another Gunpowder Plot (and let's get it right this time)!

—

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

Submitted by gjohnsit on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 2:05pm

Can't forget about Venezuela

throw some more cash at it

US prosecutors say Saab, a Colombia-born businessman, siphoned about $350m out of Venezuela via the United States as part of a scheme that involved bribing Venezuelan government officials for fake import documents to secure dollar payments at a favorable exchange rate.

Submitted by Snode on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 2:09pm

America the corrupt

I had read the Scandinavian countries were able to institute the "socialst" health care, education, unemployment and child care system because the citizens wanted it, and it would apply to every one.

Here in the US every boon is by exception, you must be unique to gain favor. This tax break for one group, that deduction for these corporations, a carve out for left handed Afghanistan war vets born under the sign of Sagittarius, but only if they're born in months with no "r" in them. If you're not wealthy enough to itemize then there is little for your benefit. As you say, for us little people it's always "we can't afford it". All those Canadians lined up at the border to get US medical care, fleeing the government death panels. Our own domestic propaganda machine tells us so.

To paraphrase that rich dude "of course there's class war, and my sides winning."

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 6:19pm

Sadly we have gone searching for monster

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this:

America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

America has betrayed everything that Adams wanted it to be. Oh we definitely say that we are invading countries to spread freedom and democracy to them, but I don’t think anyone would believe that bombing the sh*t out of them and destroying their infrastructure, buildings and killing the people who live in them is actually accomplishing their goals. Take Libya for example. It was once the most prosperous country in the Middle East with free health care, free schools and so many other things that Americans have long wanted, but is now destroyed in many areas, has constant military fighting and dealings with the terrorists that we imported to do our bidding. Then of course there is Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and countless others that we have inflicted unimaginable damage and pain on their citizens.

I wonder how they are enjoying their freedom and democracy that we brung them?

Didn’t the founding fathers warn against us doing this?

Or working with some of the most ruthless people that we use either as our enemies when convenient or allies when it’s also convenient?

What would Adams think of this?

A few more.

I can only imagine how our government would react if we had another tea party today.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.

Submitted by Sima on Sat, 02/19/2022 - 10:53pm

Those before and after pics

@snoopydawg
really hit it. I am going to show them to my 'liberal' friends, I bet they don't blink an eye. Me, I wanna cry.

And now, friends and countrymen, if the wise and learned philosophers of the elder world, the first observers of nutation and aberration, the discoverers of maddening ether and invisible planets, the inventors of Congreve rockets and Shrapnel shells, should find their hearts disposed to enquire what has America done for the benefit of mankind? Let our answer be this:

America, with the same voice which spoke herself into existence as a nation, proclaimed to mankind the inextinguishable rights of human nature, and the only lawful foundations of government. America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity. She has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless and often to disdainful ears, the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and of equal rights. She has, in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. She has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when conflict has been for principles to which she clings, as to the last vital drop that visits the heart. She has seen that probably for centuries to come, all the contests of that Aceldama the European world, will be contests of inveterate power, and emerging right.

Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She will commend the general cause by the countenance of her voice, and the benignant sympathy of her example. She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force.... She might become the dictatress of the world. She would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit....

[America's] glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.

America has betrayed everything that Adams wanted it to be. Oh we definitely say that we are invading countries to spread freedom and democracy to them, but I don’t think anyone would believe that bombing the sh*t out of them and destroying their infrastructure, buildings and killing the people who live in them is actually accomplishing their goals. Take Libya for example. It was once the most prosperous country in the Middle East with free health care, free schools and so many other things that Americans have long wanted, but is now destroyed in many areas, has constant military fighting and dealings with the terrorists that we imported to do our bidding. Then of course there is Iraq, Syria, Vietnam, Yugoslavia and countless others that we have inflicted unimaginable damage and pain on their citizens.

I wonder how they are enjoying their freedom and democracy that we brung them?

Didn’t the founding fathers warn against us doing this?

Or working with some of the most ruthless people that we use either as our enemies when convenient or allies when it’s also convenient?

What would Adams think of this?

A few more.

I can only imagine how our government would react if we had another tea party today.

—

If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Submitted by snoopydawg on Sun, 02/20/2022 - 12:25am

It’s appalling that your ‘liberal' friends are okay with the

@Sima

destruction we have done to countless countries just because who was in charge when it was done isn’t it? I remember fighting with some of the kos kids when Obama continued Bush’s wars in the ME. A few told me that Obama’s drones saved American troops lives instead of being horrified at his doing it. I was accused of being racist because I dared criticize Obama. Good grief! If you are anti war for one president it should carry over for the next one.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.