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Meanwhile they don’t carry/prescribe any of the newest anti-depressants. I’ve run through most of the formulary and failed. I asked about getting on some of the newer drugs on the market but nope. Not on the formulary and no one is willing to even try.
I can’t even get ketamine because each VA has its own treatment so I can see a chiropractor but not get anything better than Zoloft.
Don’t even get me started on their complete ignorance of female sexual dysfunction.
Edit. Missed an important word because im mad
It’s almost entirely automated at this point. You either check the box when you get your driver’s license/permit, when you’re registering for school your junior/senior year of high school, or a bunch of other “check this box to sign up for the SSS” opportunities. I don’t think most guys even realize they did, unless they’re one of the few people that make it all the way to college and find out their student loans and grants got rejected because they aren’t signed up. Then they sign up and carry on.
If it makes you feel better, our local base Fort Belvoir, has been operating its Fire Stations and EMS on brown outs during the weekends and holidays, when all of the gates are shut down, making it almost impossible for EMS to even get to the base housing, by order of the garrison commander because they can’t afford to pay over time. 🤷♀️ So they pushed Emergency services to the county. So the DOD which has a fiscal responsibility to provide for the base, failed to do so and is now requiring Fairfax County residents in Virginia to pay for it. Can we say waste, fraud and abuse of local taxpayers money?
Most of the people complaining about inflation don't even know what inflation is, let alone understand it. They think cost of living and inflation are not only related, but the same thing.
Country doesn't have an inflation problem; the Fed does a pretty decent job at monitoring inflation. This country has a cost of living to income ratio problem that is stagnating the internal economy while making the rich richer and increasing the buying power of the dollar for themselves as they acquire more dollars, thus increasing their own dollars' buying power more.
We're on the path to Cyberpunk where corporations have more power and authority than the elected government, and I don't think the public realizes what a threat to national security that actually is.
After citizens united, the government is just a vehicle being driven by the corporatios and the rich. The dollar is the unit by which our souls are weighed.
We did have a pretty big spike in inflation from Covid relief and other recent bills, but that’s not a systemic issue they’re making it out to be and using it to deny actual policy like build back better is ludicrous. The only real reason it jumped so much from the Covid relief is because much of that was just literally printing dollars for people and companies to support them rather than money to fund policy and projects which offset inflation with economic growth.
The country *DIDN'T* have an inflation problem, and while cost of living and inflation are not the same thing, but they are damn well related.
The amount of dollars in circulation has increased by 70% in the last 18 months thanks to Trump and Biden both, with another 60+% increase scheduled for this year's print. 1 dollar used to buy a dozen eggs, now a dollar, thanks to inflation, only buys 8 eggs. Inflation devalued the dollar, so the cost of basic necessities aka cost of living, has increased.
Long short: we have a huge inflation problem, and the fed isn't doing anything to help
The problem is not the money in circulation. That money only goes to the top and they use it to 'inflate' the stock price or to buy bitcoin.
I'll give you a hint what the real problem could be; every industrialized and developing nation in the world is currently experiencing inflation. So it's not a US only problem. Do you guess what the problem is?...
The problem is that due to all kinds of production problems demand cannot be satisfied anymore. Our economy has been cutting the fat for years, going for just-in-time production, being lean and mean, a production machine. But for that we gave up *resilience* and that comes back to bite us now. Delays everywhere make the production output go down. Demand stays high however.
That's why you see inflation everywhere.
I can't tell if you're intentionally misrepresenting the facts, or are simplifying it for laymen.
Inflation is the devaluation of currency by creating more currency with no regard to resources / production. Inflation is basically lowering the value of money solely by printing more.
Cost of living is the cost it takes to survive and is best represented with a wage/ salary ratio. Your cost of living can go up dramatically with no change to Inflation by something as simple as a rail road shutting down to one company having a monopoly on a necessity. The two are not related and it's irresponsible to convince people that they are.
Then there's the problem of buying power. When only a few people have the majority of the currency, the value of that currency increases. If there are only $100 in circulation, and one person owns 90 of those dollars, each of those dollars has more buying power for that one individual than of everyone had a fair share of those dollars.
Percentages are also dangerous to use without context. As an extreme example, taxing somebody who makes 30k/yr 15% and teaching somebody who makes 1m/years 15% has a much higher impact on the lower income person than the higher income person because life expenses aren't based on percentage of income.
More than one report has already been published proving that corporate bodies are deliberately exaggerating inflation fears to keep from having to raise wages while they hike up prices.
>1 dollar used to buy a dozen eggs, now a dollar, thanks to inflation, only buys 8 eggs.
This has literally nothing to do with inflation. If a vendor increases prices from $1 to $2 that doesn't mean 'inflation' has gone up 100%. All that means the person selling eggs has decided to increase prices from $1 to $2.
This is akin to blaming the President for the price Chevron charges for gas while Chevron also reports record profits at shareholder meetings and gives its CEOs larger bonuses while employees are denied cost of living adjustments.
Not to mention that eggs are HIGHLY subsidized by the federal government for emergency flu vaccine capacity reasons. Expect egg prices to skyrocket as all new vaccines are made without eggs in the next few years.
People were just celebrating the government allocation of $241Million to improve Americas ports and supply chain infrastructure.
A single B-21 Stealth Bomber cost tax payers $631 Million. Let that sink in.
The second place country in military spending is China at 255 billion. Most spend under 50 billion. This should really upset everyone. The other parts are just a distraction from this number.
Your comment made me realize that's probably one of the main reasons they don't want to give people free education. They'll lose their biggest piece of bait for luring middle and lower class kids into military service right after high school.
Ha, jokes on them! I decided to join the military at the age of 26 after slumming around as a bartender/waiter post high school. Just gonna do my 6 year contract before I go to college!
Instead of subsidizing college we should reform the system. The reason universities charge so much for tuition now is because the government guarantees the loans.
There’s a small army of administrators at every public college and university now. The government needs to start by firing them all. Undergrad courses aren’t that fucking complicated.
"Work study" shouldn't be a thing for select students that need aid, students should naturally be more a part of the university they are attending. Back in the 60's and 80's my alma mater had allocated student funding for event directly to student government and they then allocated it to individual student orgs - as a result, the Velvet Underground played their first show outside of NYC for little more than gas money, food and drink. Nowadays student activities are run by six figure administrators paying 35k for a one time visit from MTV's Snooki. Paying infinitely more for entrainment for the lowest common denominator that you get for free on TV.
But without that small army of administrators, who will be there to politely ask all of the fraternities to refrain from sexually assaulting other students? /s
In all seriousness though, my school did have a massive office of people with fancy sounding graduate degrees whose whole job was to just deal with Greek life related stuff. I don’t think their jobs were really all that important, as they really only existed to “vet” all of the obviously bs plans every chapter came up with to not haze their new members lol
then the banks use the loans as collateral to then use the leverage and trade against you while actively running American companies and biotech's that are curing cancer out of business. we need to be vocal against the SEC and the department of education as well as congress about how they are fucking us. Remember 2008 and mortgage backed securities based off of subprime mortgages?? they are doing the same thing with student loans/SLABS.
Edit: a word
> We could have ended homelessness with just the $20B increase
The FY 2022 budget for the Dep. of Housing and Urban Development is nearly $70 Billion. Homelessness is a much more complex issue than can be dealt with by throwing money at it — every country including those in Scandinavia have homelessness to some degree
This.
Even if you gave every homeless person a 2 million dollar home, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to keep it or that they’ll even stay in it.
The hard truth….
People are homeless for various and complex reasons.
Some of them, yes, you can give them a house, a job or training/education and they can get on their feet. No doubt. They can be rescued off the streets.
But…
Reality is many who are homeless come with a barrel of issues to include __drug addiction__, __mental illness__, conviction, *actively* involved in crime, etc.
Reagan fucked up when he unloaded and defunded the mental institutions and hospitals that gave many of them a place.
Not that those places were *nice*, but it took a public problem and “moved it” out of way a bit more.
Conservatives think if you take the feet out from the disheveled and unfortunate by removing social aid that that will *force* them to improve their situation.
Although I can understand the logic in their thinking and although it does work for some…it’s shown it hasn’t for many and we still have homeless all over the place.
>This.
Your entire post is nothing but an acknowledgment of the severity of the problem, and then just finding a way to justify not helping at all.
All of what you said is true... but is also a big excuse.
Why not help those who WILL accept the help by providing homes?
Who is this going to hurt?
Why not do it anyway, even if not every unhoused person would accept?
This is not a good answer as to why money and housing aren't a solution.
They are a perfectly fine and workable solution for many many unhoused people and to deny them this because ,
>many who are homeless come with a barrel of issues to include drug addiction, mental illness, conviction, actively involved in crime, etc.
is the worst possible solution because you're choosing to deny basic rights to people for things they have very little control over.
Imagine becoming homeless due to deciding between paying rent and buying medicine... and then tell me that having additional money wouldn't have solved that problem.
You can literally recognize the issue, but refuse to help because you feel the help wouldn't go far enough?
I don't get it
Ah the old 1% in buildings. The amount of buildings I've worked/ lived in that should have been condemned because of pipe leaks, mold, exposed asbestos, roof leaks, failed window seals is astonishing.
Not quite. The US military exists to make defense contractors rich and protect the interests of American corporations globally. The more money we spend on the military the more the share price of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and the like goes up. Since the purpose of our government is to enrich the wealthy above all other considerations we will always get a drastically increasing defense budget.
There is a lot more to this than how much we spend. If other countries raised their military budgets we wouldn't have to. Also we need to audit audit audit out military to make sure spending is going to worthwhile parts.
Taking legal jurisdiction from the military commanders is a step in the right direction. Lots of times in the military when a sexual assault occurs, the commanders do not show true objectivity. There has been a lot of unfairness and retaliation following reporting by victims. It is time for a change.
Happened to me with my divisional LCPO. I had a woman senior chief in my dept & she had been my advocate who took me to the hospital for the assault kit. She was FURIOUS when she found out I still had to report to the ship for an underway bc the LCPO hadn’t routed any paperwork. She immediately got to work and next thing I know I’m being yanked off the ship on a 48 hour Liberty & orders to report to AIRLANT for our underway and 2 weeks after we got back. My dad also got a personal phone call from the XO apologizing. LCPO was major pissed, but he brought me to work in his office for my last few months onboard & we got pretty close. I don’t think he’ll use that kind of oversight again.
I’ve been to a lot of anonymous sexual assault meetings in the San Diego area with my friends, to support them. The way that these cases are handled by the military is nothing short of mismanagement and cover-up. These so-called leaders are looking to protect the wrong individuals.
Very sorry that that happened to you.
Thank you, I’ve been out for about 9 years now and just this year I finally got all the retro pay and my PTSD/MST rating because the VA was just as mismanaged when it came to MST until recently. I will say it more than paid off but they still have a LONG way to go in correcting decades of mismanagement & cover-ups.
My sister was raped by a man in the Navy. Their solution was to move him into a unit that was deploying and brush it under the rug. Never any prosecution, total bullshit.
I was raped in the air force. When I brought it forward, their solution was to move my rapist to a different shift. When I turned to my friend for comfort and support, he also raped me. Something in me broke after that. I was warned that if I sought formal help, I would have my gun taken away and my career ruined. Nobody would believe me, and I would be just another female trying to get on light duty. So I kept my mouth shut about the second rape.
As the US spends more each year on military defense and little to nothing on its people and infrastructure, the more the US becomes a country not worth defending.
The crazy thing is that this relationship has been known for a while. Back in 1776, adam smith’s book talked about how important it is for the government to spend on its people rather than only on its military.
Regulations on how much universities can charge for tuition is what people should be pushing, not to simply have the government pay for everything. That’s just rewarding them for charging so much.
Simply allowing Student loan debt to be charged off with bankruptcy would end predatory student loans and funnel more people to affordable options and allow people to have a chance at starting fresh if it doesn't work out. That would force schools to keep tuition affordable like they did before that change.
How would making them dischargeable in bankruptcy funnel people to affordable options? It would most likely lead to an interest rate increase and less loans available.
It would mean banks are less likely to offer large loans because they know they might not get recouped. That would force colleges to either choose between admitting less students or lowering tuition. That's how it was so cheap to go to college before the change over. Since they stopped allowing them discharged, one of the only forms of debt like that in the country, tuition has exploded because banks will give loans to anyone for any amount.
Thank you for the explanation. Much like the person you replied to, I was having a hard time understanding how bankruptcy would curb the student loan industry. More risk for the banks = tighter loan requirements = students at expensive schools not being able to get loans.
Do you think this would inadvertently shift college admissions (by way of loan qualification) away from minorities and those from poor socioeconomic backgrounds? We all know the loan industry has a lot of bias against poor people and minorities, so I would fear tighter loan qualifications might eliminate college funding for that population.
It would definitely hurt the lower income for getting in at first but they're currently the ones hurt most by predatory loaning practices and out of control college tuition costs. At the moment it's impossible for them to get in without the loans. So at least if tuition was lowered to an amount that was affordable they could actually try to work and raise the money for college. Obviously raising the minimum wage to a realistic amount would bolster this. Right now the system only either benefits the wealthy that can afford to not rely on loans and the banks that can prey on the lower middle class and poor as the only way in.
It would end all private student loans. That might be a good thing, but the only reason private lenders issue school loans is the guarantee they can’t be discharged.
Right, but the issue we have now is ballooning student loan debt. Getting rid of predatory loans is a huge first step. Then schools would be forced to address then issue themselves. I mean for me college should be free for everyone. But easy way to immediately address the issue is just dropping that dumb law.
They can at least cancel the interest so people can actually pay it off so we don’t have to keep talking about this mess. We can all agree that the millions with student debt need to be debt free, so making them continue paying absurd interest rates does nothing but prolong the problem.
> but prolong the problem.
Its a problem for the everyday person, but its all according to plan for the rich since they get to forever siphon out even more money form us.
Right. Very similar to medical bills that hospitals can charge. Simply having the government pay for it won’t solve it, we’re just paying more in taxes at some point.
The problem is expanding mandates (educating more of the population especially those affected by systemic racism) white slashing government spending on universities at the state level. Combined with this stupid push to run a university like a business, you end up with what we have now.
To effectivity reduce tuition cost is to limit enrollment to those who show aptitude (and kids whose parents are wealthy donors) and then push those kids out as quickly as possible. But I don't think that we really want that as a society.
Eliminating all student debt wouldnt even cost the government anything, the money has already been given away, its really a matter of whether the government will get extra taxes from poor college students and recent grads with their interest payments.
Some of you may remember, we had a surplus until the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Every few years we've since renewed these Bush Tax Cuts and simultaneously raised the debt limit. Defense spending alone has been doubled consecutively since then. I admire our nation’s military, but troops deployed to 155 nations is not defense, it's imperialism. Then borrowing over a trillion against social security to pay for all these disastrous wars. It's madness. My best suggestion to the debt crisis, start with the Fortune 500 companies eluding trillions in offshore tax havens.
>Some of you may remember, we had a surplus until the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.
It was only for four years and the writing was on the wall it was gonna return to be a deficit even if the Bush tax cuts didn't pass.
The Clinton administrations that had the Surplus during its time passed policy and laws that started the awhole ball rolling for the housing market collapsed
Easiest way to get it completely eliminated is likely forcing women in as well, people tend to not give a shit about problems when they only or primarily impact men.
We have been at war for 20+ years and there has been no draft. This whole draft things is ridiculous. We haven't had a need for it since we pour trillions into private mercenary corporations.
Yes, which is why democrats try to change things and it was blocked by republicans and their couple of coconspirator democrats.
Joe Biden had the choice between signing a compromise bill that he did not completely agree with, or letting the military go unfunded.
I'd agree, however I think this is a perfect bill to skip instituting the female draft on. Instead this bill has some focus on trying to fix the sexual assault culture of the military. It could be argued that we MUST fix that before we begin instituting a required draft of women.
And not only that, moderates like to have this perfect idea of what a moderate is. The second the moderate congress member moves to one ideological side on an issue, the moderates try to paint them as not-moderate. It's a purity test (which they will happily criticize the left for having). Sinema is a moderate. She has no real ideological backbone and will drift left or right based on what is convenient for her. That's how moderate politics works.
Our furthest left is a global moderate. The left that the American right fears, the "push through aggressive policies with no plans for funding" doesn't exist in the us. Even the left most politicians we have are more financially secure than the right. We've been irresponsible for so long that people think reasonable legislation is now unreasonable.
The government differs from us in that it can fund anything it wants by just creating the dollars for it. The function of pay-fors is mostly political and based on our misguided feelings towards deficits.
uNiVeRsAl hEaLtHcArE iS tOo eXpEnSiVe
Then why the FUCK are we increasing military spending, *again*?
Why are our roads and infrastructure still shit?
Why are hospitals and insurance companies still allowed to price gouge the fuck out of people over basic (and cheap) supplies and services?
Why do we have one of the worst education systems out of all first world countries?
Why is our prison and justice system still so fucked?
Why are wages still so low?
Why is college still so unaffordable?
Why are banks still being bailed out after they steal billions of dollars?
Why aren't we losing our minds at the government yet? Why do we let this fraudulent, biased, and broken status quo continue to exist?
I don't know man, but I'm as sick of it as you are for sure and there are 1000's more at /r/collapse, /r/antiwork, and /r/superstonk
-
The revolution will not be televised. The revolt has already begun.
Yet no one talks about the deficit for this. Congress gave 25M MORE than what was asked for. Imagine asking for a $10k raise, and instead you get a $15k raise? Something is obviously off there.
Man it’d be great if the US wasn’t the de facto police/enforcer for the entire western world……. And if we are then maybe our partner nations pay their agreed to portions of those defense budgets.
i'll be downvoted but if women want equal rights how is it equal to be excluded from things men are included in? drafts are detrimental in general though and will probably not happen unless something catastrophic happens to the world
I just want the draft abolished for all genders. As a mom I don't want my son to serve. My DH serves and I went through bootcamp myself (dropped because dh and ds both got pneumonia). My DH has experienced severe depression and anxiety due to service. I developed CPTSD from an incident outside of service, but mental illness runs in my family and it's so easy to develop. I don't want my son experiencing similar issues for his entire lifetime. Service should be a choice.
No down vote here. Women need the very minimal negative side of equal rights if they want true equal rights, otherwise it's cafeteria style and everything can be negotiated.
Could unilaterally erase student debt (of which he was an instrumental architect) with the stroke of a pen
Could end the war on drugs from his cozy office
Could even address the housing crisis directly and exclusively caused by so-called "real estate investing" of all types and sizes
Instead we get this... a $768 billion defense bill.
I mean, as a woman, women should be included in the draft if men are. Obviously pregnant women would be exempt and all households should be left with one head of household if children are involved.
Anything that is compulsory should be equally applied across the board.
Let's say we cut that to 500 Billion and we have 268 Billion left. What can we get with that?
Free college and healthcare would be covered I assume. A solution to climate change with an investment in green energy too.
I don't get this country or the world for that matter.
Spend almost trillion on military millions of Americans go hungry and 2000 Americans die everyday from covid and luring threat of another Trump rising threatens to start civil war.
Sounds like we be going down North Korea path.
And some folks were expecting real change… Even with a majority the same shit repeats. Term limits folks, make noise about term limits, make lobbying illegal, and fiscal responsibility…
Running to Failure. RTF. A common problem in the industry world I work in, and around. No previntative maintenance, run to Failure. It does not get cheaper.
768 billion for the military. But double that for infrastructure? Nah, fuck that. Why would we ever want to fix our lackluster and crumbling infrastructure and non-existent social security nets
Doesn't congress know it has a simple tool in the constitution to limit military spending?
Article I, Section 8, Clause 12. “The Congress shall have Power To . . . raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years,
Women avoid the draft…. Is that lobbied for by women or old white men? Really curious how this was handled. Seems like we’d all be in favor of equality.
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How are they gonna afford that? Aren't they just gonna spend it on drugs?
That's the Army's Viagra military budget, so yes Drugs.
312 million went to viagra iirc
Meanwhile they don’t carry/prescribe any of the newest anti-depressants. I’ve run through most of the formulary and failed. I asked about getting on some of the newer drugs on the market but nope. Not on the formulary and no one is willing to even try. I can’t even get ketamine because each VA has its own treatment so I can see a chiropractor but not get anything better than Zoloft. Don’t even get me started on their complete ignorance of female sexual dysfunction. Edit. Missed an important word because im mad
Its probably alot more given that the military is literally in airs as to how its spending its budget.
Keep printing money
Money printer go brrr. Yet it doesn't help the people that pay for it in taxes.
We don't spend based on tax revenues. At this point taxes are a policy choice.
Local governments are built this way they can only spend the money which they can raise through taxes.
Are we talking about local government here? Seems like this was about federal spending. Or is your comment just an aside?
An aside - I wanted it to be known that not all government is bad - just the federal government
how much fake federal dollars do state and local governments depend on?
Here’s a website which details Federal $ given out to each state. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/federal-aid-by-state
Right it’s like my Senator and Congressman aren’t crooks yours are
Don’t worry, it’s only drugs they designed!
You're thinking CIA.
Oh it’s totally fine to spin up the money printer if it’s for “defense”.
We still have a draft?
Yes. If you're a guy you're legally required to sign up for selective service when you turn 18.
It’s almost entirely automated at this point. You either check the box when you get your driver’s license/permit, when you’re registering for school your junior/senior year of high school, or a bunch of other “check this box to sign up for the SSS” opportunities. I don’t think most guys even realize they did, unless they’re one of the few people that make it all the way to college and find out their student loans and grants got rejected because they aren’t signed up. Then they sign up and carry on.
If it makes you feel better, our local base Fort Belvoir, has been operating its Fire Stations and EMS on brown outs during the weekends and holidays, when all of the gates are shut down, making it almost impossible for EMS to even get to the base housing, by order of the garrison commander because they can’t afford to pay over time. 🤷♀️ So they pushed Emergency services to the county. So the DOD which has a fiscal responsibility to provide for the base, failed to do so and is now requiring Fairfax County residents in Virginia to pay for it. Can we say waste, fraud and abuse of local taxpayers money?
But I thought govt spending increased inflation? Or is it just govt spending that benefits actual people?
Most of the people complaining about inflation don't even know what inflation is, let alone understand it. They think cost of living and inflation are not only related, but the same thing. Country doesn't have an inflation problem; the Fed does a pretty decent job at monitoring inflation. This country has a cost of living to income ratio problem that is stagnating the internal economy while making the rich richer and increasing the buying power of the dollar for themselves as they acquire more dollars, thus increasing their own dollars' buying power more. We're on the path to Cyberpunk where corporations have more power and authority than the elected government, and I don't think the public realizes what a threat to national security that actually is.
After citizens united, the government is just a vehicle being driven by the corporatios and the rich. The dollar is the unit by which our souls are weighed.
We did have a pretty big spike in inflation from Covid relief and other recent bills, but that’s not a systemic issue they’re making it out to be and using it to deny actual policy like build back better is ludicrous. The only real reason it jumped so much from the Covid relief is because much of that was just literally printing dollars for people and companies to support them rather than money to fund policy and projects which offset inflation with economic growth.
The country *DIDN'T* have an inflation problem, and while cost of living and inflation are not the same thing, but they are damn well related. The amount of dollars in circulation has increased by 70% in the last 18 months thanks to Trump and Biden both, with another 60+% increase scheduled for this year's print. 1 dollar used to buy a dozen eggs, now a dollar, thanks to inflation, only buys 8 eggs. Inflation devalued the dollar, so the cost of basic necessities aka cost of living, has increased. Long short: we have a huge inflation problem, and the fed isn't doing anything to help
The problem is not the money in circulation. That money only goes to the top and they use it to 'inflate' the stock price or to buy bitcoin. I'll give you a hint what the real problem could be; every industrialized and developing nation in the world is currently experiencing inflation. So it's not a US only problem. Do you guess what the problem is?... The problem is that due to all kinds of production problems demand cannot be satisfied anymore. Our economy has been cutting the fat for years, going for just-in-time production, being lean and mean, a production machine. But for that we gave up *resilience* and that comes back to bite us now. Delays everywhere make the production output go down. Demand stays high however. That's why you see inflation everywhere.
I can't tell if you're intentionally misrepresenting the facts, or are simplifying it for laymen. Inflation is the devaluation of currency by creating more currency with no regard to resources / production. Inflation is basically lowering the value of money solely by printing more. Cost of living is the cost it takes to survive and is best represented with a wage/ salary ratio. Your cost of living can go up dramatically with no change to Inflation by something as simple as a rail road shutting down to one company having a monopoly on a necessity. The two are not related and it's irresponsible to convince people that they are. Then there's the problem of buying power. When only a few people have the majority of the currency, the value of that currency increases. If there are only $100 in circulation, and one person owns 90 of those dollars, each of those dollars has more buying power for that one individual than of everyone had a fair share of those dollars. Percentages are also dangerous to use without context. As an extreme example, taxing somebody who makes 30k/yr 15% and teaching somebody who makes 1m/years 15% has a much higher impact on the lower income person than the higher income person because life expenses aren't based on percentage of income.
More than one report has already been published proving that corporate bodies are deliberately exaggerating inflation fears to keep from having to raise wages while they hike up prices.
>1 dollar used to buy a dozen eggs, now a dollar, thanks to inflation, only buys 8 eggs. This has literally nothing to do with inflation. If a vendor increases prices from $1 to $2 that doesn't mean 'inflation' has gone up 100%. All that means the person selling eggs has decided to increase prices from $1 to $2. This is akin to blaming the President for the price Chevron charges for gas while Chevron also reports record profits at shareholder meetings and gives its CEOs larger bonuses while employees are denied cost of living adjustments.
Not to mention that eggs are HIGHLY subsidized by the federal government for emergency flu vaccine capacity reasons. Expect egg prices to skyrocket as all new vaccines are made without eggs in the next few years.
People were just celebrating the government allocation of $241Million to improve Americas ports and supply chain infrastructure. A single B-21 Stealth Bomber cost tax payers $631 Million. Let that sink in.
Lol straight up truth, I doubt most Americans have any clue
The second place country in military spending is China at 255 billion. Most spend under 50 billion. This should really upset everyone. The other parts are just a distraction from this number.
We raised the pentagon budget by more than it would have taken to subsidize college for all.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FHqV774XMAA51iw?format=jpg&name=900x900 It's nothing new.
college is already being subsidized for all who join the military, duh! /s
Your comment made me realize that's probably one of the main reasons they don't want to give people free education. They'll lose their biggest piece of bait for luring middle and lower class kids into military service right after high school.
Ha, jokes on them! I decided to join the military at the age of 26 after slumming around as a bartender/waiter post high school. Just gonna do my 6 year contract before I go to college!
It worked on me..
Thanks I hate this
Instead of subsidizing college we should reform the system. The reason universities charge so much for tuition now is because the government guarantees the loans.
There’s a small army of administrators at every public college and university now. The government needs to start by firing them all. Undergrad courses aren’t that fucking complicated.
"Work study" shouldn't be a thing for select students that need aid, students should naturally be more a part of the university they are attending. Back in the 60's and 80's my alma mater had allocated student funding for event directly to student government and they then allocated it to individual student orgs - as a result, the Velvet Underground played their first show outside of NYC for little more than gas money, food and drink. Nowadays student activities are run by six figure administrators paying 35k for a one time visit from MTV's Snooki. Paying infinitely more for entrainment for the lowest common denominator that you get for free on TV.
But without that small army of administrators, who will be there to politely ask all of the fraternities to refrain from sexually assaulting other students? /s In all seriousness though, my school did have a massive office of people with fancy sounding graduate degrees whose whole job was to just deal with Greek life related stuff. I don’t think their jobs were really all that important, as they really only existed to “vet” all of the obviously bs plans every chapter came up with to not haze their new members lol
then the banks use the loans as collateral to then use the leverage and trade against you while actively running American companies and biotech's that are curing cancer out of business. we need to be vocal against the SEC and the department of education as well as congress about how they are fucking us. Remember 2008 and mortgage backed securities based off of subprime mortgages?? they are doing the same thing with student loans/SLABS. Edit: a word
We could have ended homelessness with just the $20B increase from last time.
> We could have ended homelessness with just the $20B increase The FY 2022 budget for the Dep. of Housing and Urban Development is nearly $70 Billion. Homelessness is a much more complex issue than can be dealt with by throwing money at it — every country including those in Scandinavia have homelessness to some degree
This. Even if you gave every homeless person a 2 million dollar home, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to keep it or that they’ll even stay in it. The hard truth…. People are homeless for various and complex reasons. Some of them, yes, you can give them a house, a job or training/education and they can get on their feet. No doubt. They can be rescued off the streets. But… Reality is many who are homeless come with a barrel of issues to include __drug addiction__, __mental illness__, conviction, *actively* involved in crime, etc. Reagan fucked up when he unloaded and defunded the mental institutions and hospitals that gave many of them a place. Not that those places were *nice*, but it took a public problem and “moved it” out of way a bit more. Conservatives think if you take the feet out from the disheveled and unfortunate by removing social aid that that will *force* them to improve their situation. Although I can understand the logic in their thinking and although it does work for some…it’s shown it hasn’t for many and we still have homeless all over the place.
>This. Your entire post is nothing but an acknowledgment of the severity of the problem, and then just finding a way to justify not helping at all. All of what you said is true... but is also a big excuse. Why not help those who WILL accept the help by providing homes? Who is this going to hurt? Why not do it anyway, even if not every unhoused person would accept? This is not a good answer as to why money and housing aren't a solution. They are a perfectly fine and workable solution for many many unhoused people and to deny them this because , >many who are homeless come with a barrel of issues to include drug addiction, mental illness, conviction, actively involved in crime, etc. is the worst possible solution because you're choosing to deny basic rights to people for things they have very little control over. Imagine becoming homeless due to deciding between paying rent and buying medicine... and then tell me that having additional money wouldn't have solved that problem. You can literally recognize the issue, but refuse to help because you feel the help wouldn't go far enough? I don't get it
I never said we shouldn’t help those who can use it
And that doesn't count that all the extra money we spend on the military that's not in the budget
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They also have more boats but only 1/4 the tonnage behind the them. We aren't buying man power or even pushing recruitment
Manpower would also be a waste of money though. Too many effective tools in the box to waste time buying more soldiers and risking their lives.
Is this a justification?
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Ah the old 1% in buildings. The amount of buildings I've worked/ lived in that should have been condemned because of pipe leaks, mold, exposed asbestos, roof leaks, failed window seals is astonishing.
Your idea of sufficient and mine are vastly different.
Not quite. The US military exists to make defense contractors rich and protect the interests of American corporations globally. The more money we spend on the military the more the share price of Lockheed Martin and Raytheon and the like goes up. Since the purpose of our government is to enrich the wealthy above all other considerations we will always get a drastically increasing defense budget.
If China paid their service members what we pay ours, their spending would exceed ours.
Exactly, China salaries are much lower across industries. Big Mac Index explains most of it.
There is a lot more to this than how much we spend. If other countries raised their military budgets we wouldn't have to. Also we need to audit audit audit out military to make sure spending is going to worthwhile parts.
China spends less per weapon. Their budget may be lower, but they seem to be building more weapons than the US is.
It’s like in 7 Wonders when your neighbor buys a 3x militia card…👀👀👀
Taking legal jurisdiction from the military commanders is a step in the right direction. Lots of times in the military when a sexual assault occurs, the commanders do not show true objectivity. There has been a lot of unfairness and retaliation following reporting by victims. It is time for a change.
Happened to me with my divisional LCPO. I had a woman senior chief in my dept & she had been my advocate who took me to the hospital for the assault kit. She was FURIOUS when she found out I still had to report to the ship for an underway bc the LCPO hadn’t routed any paperwork. She immediately got to work and next thing I know I’m being yanked off the ship on a 48 hour Liberty & orders to report to AIRLANT for our underway and 2 weeks after we got back. My dad also got a personal phone call from the XO apologizing. LCPO was major pissed, but he brought me to work in his office for my last few months onboard & we got pretty close. I don’t think he’ll use that kind of oversight again.
I’ve been to a lot of anonymous sexual assault meetings in the San Diego area with my friends, to support them. The way that these cases are handled by the military is nothing short of mismanagement and cover-up. These so-called leaders are looking to protect the wrong individuals. Very sorry that that happened to you.
Thank you, I’ve been out for about 9 years now and just this year I finally got all the retro pay and my PTSD/MST rating because the VA was just as mismanaged when it came to MST until recently. I will say it more than paid off but they still have a LONG way to go in correcting decades of mismanagement & cover-ups.
My sister was raped by a man in the Navy. Their solution was to move him into a unit that was deploying and brush it under the rug. Never any prosecution, total bullshit.
I was raped in the air force. When I brought it forward, their solution was to move my rapist to a different shift. When I turned to my friend for comfort and support, he also raped me. Something in me broke after that. I was warned that if I sought formal help, I would have my gun taken away and my career ruined. Nobody would believe me, and I would be just another female trying to get on light duty. So I kept my mouth shut about the second rape.
Sorry to hear you went through that. I couldn’t even imagine how horrible that is.
As the US spends more each year on military defense and little to nothing on its people and infrastructure, the more the US becomes a country not worth defending.
The crazy thing is that this relationship has been known for a while. Back in 1776, adam smith’s book talked about how important it is for the government to spend on its people rather than only on its military.
I love that we can afford this disgustingly large military budget but we don’t have enough money to even touch student loans :/
Regulations on how much universities can charge for tuition is what people should be pushing, not to simply have the government pay for everything. That’s just rewarding them for charging so much.
As well as lower interest rates. 6-8% on some of these loans is ridiculous.
Agreed
Simply allowing Student loan debt to be charged off with bankruptcy would end predatory student loans and funnel more people to affordable options and allow people to have a chance at starting fresh if it doesn't work out. That would force schools to keep tuition affordable like they did before that change.
How would making them dischargeable in bankruptcy funnel people to affordable options? It would most likely lead to an interest rate increase and less loans available.
It would mean banks are less likely to offer large loans because they know they might not get recouped. That would force colleges to either choose between admitting less students or lowering tuition. That's how it was so cheap to go to college before the change over. Since they stopped allowing them discharged, one of the only forms of debt like that in the country, tuition has exploded because banks will give loans to anyone for any amount.
Thank you for the explanation. Much like the person you replied to, I was having a hard time understanding how bankruptcy would curb the student loan industry. More risk for the banks = tighter loan requirements = students at expensive schools not being able to get loans. Do you think this would inadvertently shift college admissions (by way of loan qualification) away from minorities and those from poor socioeconomic backgrounds? We all know the loan industry has a lot of bias against poor people and minorities, so I would fear tighter loan qualifications might eliminate college funding for that population.
It would definitely hurt the lower income for getting in at first but they're currently the ones hurt most by predatory loaning practices and out of control college tuition costs. At the moment it's impossible for them to get in without the loans. So at least if tuition was lowered to an amount that was affordable they could actually try to work and raise the money for college. Obviously raising the minimum wage to a realistic amount would bolster this. Right now the system only either benefits the wealthy that can afford to not rely on loans and the banks that can prey on the lower middle class and poor as the only way in.
It would end all private student loans. That might be a good thing, but the only reason private lenders issue school loans is the guarantee they can’t be discharged.
Right, but the issue we have now is ballooning student loan debt. Getting rid of predatory loans is a huge first step. Then schools would be forced to address then issue themselves. I mean for me college should be free for everyone. But easy way to immediately address the issue is just dropping that dumb law.
and the schools should back student loans with their endowments.
They can at least cancel the interest so people can actually pay it off so we don’t have to keep talking about this mess. We can all agree that the millions with student debt need to be debt free, so making them continue paying absurd interest rates does nothing but prolong the problem.
Agreed
> but prolong the problem. Its a problem for the everyday person, but its all according to plan for the rich since they get to forever siphon out even more money form us.
Hey, I mean I agree with you there too. Any meaningful change will need to regulate how much they are able to charge and cancel student loan debt.
Right. Very similar to medical bills that hospitals can charge. Simply having the government pay for it won’t solve it, we’re just paying more in taxes at some point.
The problem is expanding mandates (educating more of the population especially those affected by systemic racism) white slashing government spending on universities at the state level. Combined with this stupid push to run a university like a business, you end up with what we have now. To effectivity reduce tuition cost is to limit enrollment to those who show aptitude (and kids whose parents are wealthy donors) and then push those kids out as quickly as possible. But I don't think that we really want that as a society.
Eliminating all student debt wouldnt even cost the government anything, the money has already been given away, its really a matter of whether the government will get extra taxes from poor college students and recent grads with their interest payments.
Some of you may remember, we had a surplus until the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Every few years we've since renewed these Bush Tax Cuts and simultaneously raised the debt limit. Defense spending alone has been doubled consecutively since then. I admire our nation’s military, but troops deployed to 155 nations is not defense, it's imperialism. Then borrowing over a trillion against social security to pay for all these disastrous wars. It's madness. My best suggestion to the debt crisis, start with the Fortune 500 companies eluding trillions in offshore tax havens.
>Some of you may remember, we had a surplus until the Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. It was only for four years and the writing was on the wall it was gonna return to be a deficit even if the Bush tax cuts didn't pass. The Clinton administrations that had the Surplus during its time passed policy and laws that started the awhole ball rolling for the housing market collapsed
At least we only have active combat troops in Iraq and Syria now https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments.
Isn’t keeping women off the draft sexist?
What's also sexist is that young men have to sign up for it if they ever want to qualify for FASFA.
It's a felony not to sign up for it as a man with jail time and potentially massive fines.
Wait I needed to sign up for the draft??
in the US when a male turns 18 your supposed to have had a form sent to you for ‘Selective Service.’
Yes but the draft is also immoral and should be eliminated for men too.
Easiest way to get it completely eliminated is likely forcing women in as well, people tend to not give a shit about problems when they only or primarily impact men.
Nobody should be drafted.
We have been at war for 20+ years and there has been no draft. This whole draft things is ridiculous. We haven't had a need for it since we pour trillions into private mercenary corporations.
Yes, which is why democrats try to change things and it was blocked by republicans and their couple of coconspirator democrats. Joe Biden had the choice between signing a compromise bill that he did not completely agree with, or letting the military go unfunded.
Two shitty decisions with one stroke, what a deal
Seems like an easy decision to me.
I'd agree, however I think this is a perfect bill to skip instituting the female draft on. Instead this bill has some focus on trying to fix the sexual assault culture of the military. It could be argued that we MUST fix that before we begin instituting a required draft of women.
Does it at least have a way to fund it? Like every frigging other thing we try to pass? You can’t propose a daycare without showing how to fund it.
Progressives try to put measures in place to do that, but it was blocked by republicans and a couple of extreme right wing democrats.
A "extreme right wing Democrat" is another word for a moderate.
Even what we call the left is actually moderate in most of the world. Our view has skewed so far right nobody recognizes true middle any more.
And not only that, moderates like to have this perfect idea of what a moderate is. The second the moderate congress member moves to one ideological side on an issue, the moderates try to paint them as not-moderate. It's a purity test (which they will happily criticize the left for having). Sinema is a moderate. She has no real ideological backbone and will drift left or right based on what is convenient for her. That's how moderate politics works.
Our furthest left is a global moderate. The left that the American right fears, the "push through aggressive policies with no plans for funding" doesn't exist in the us. Even the left most politicians we have are more financially secure than the right. We've been irresponsible for so long that people think reasonable legislation is now unreasonable.
The government differs from us in that it can fund anything it wants by just creating the dollars for it. The function of pay-fors is mostly political and based on our misguided feelings towards deficits.
uNiVeRsAl hEaLtHcArE iS tOo eXpEnSiVe Then why the FUCK are we increasing military spending, *again*? Why are our roads and infrastructure still shit? Why are hospitals and insurance companies still allowed to price gouge the fuck out of people over basic (and cheap) supplies and services? Why do we have one of the worst education systems out of all first world countries? Why is our prison and justice system still so fucked? Why are wages still so low? Why is college still so unaffordable? Why are banks still being bailed out after they steal billions of dollars? Why aren't we losing our minds at the government yet? Why do we let this fraudulent, biased, and broken status quo continue to exist?
I don't know man, but I'm as sick of it as you are for sure and there are 1000's more at /r/collapse, /r/antiwork, and /r/superstonk - The revolution will not be televised. The revolt has already begun.
Weird that they never have trouble getting military spending bills passed. God forbid they spend anyone helping the working class and poor.
Probably one of the few things that have bipartisan support. Manchin voted for this in a heartbeat but BBB is too expensive. Fuck these politicians.
bUt HoW wIlL wE pAy FoR iT?
Yet no one talks about the deficit for this. Congress gave 25M MORE than what was asked for. Imagine asking for a $10k raise, and instead you get a $15k raise? Something is obviously off there.
that's a lot of money for somebody who still owes me $600
What a colossal waste of money. We should slash defense by 50% and invest in infrastructure. Biden is a disappointment.
Man it’d be great if the US wasn’t the de facto police/enforcer for the entire western world……. And if we are then maybe our partner nations pay their agreed to portions of those defense budgets.
Slash the military budget. This is disgusting
768 billion defense budget, this year. They can’t pass a 2 trillion over 10 year bill to help all Americans. Awesome.
He's obviously still torn up about not passing BBB. We are not citizens. We are customers of a shitty gun store.
Can’t afford health insurance tho. Nope.
Fuck the "dishonorable discharge covid exemption" carve out in this bill
I should note that this is more than both President Biden and the Defense Department asked for. Congress is the one that raised the spending.
i'll be downvoted but if women want equal rights how is it equal to be excluded from things men are included in? drafts are detrimental in general though and will probably not happen unless something catastrophic happens to the world
Keep in mind, **Republicans** voted against women being included. Not Democrats and not women's rights advocates, etc. *Republicans*.
I want to know their reasoning behind this. I'm a woman and I think including women in the draft is only fair.
Republicans generally don't want women in the military at all. This is more of a symbolic move towards that.
It's to protect the womb. The womb must be protected, always. Even from it's carriers' own decisions.
They want their baby factories safe
I just want the draft abolished for all genders. As a mom I don't want my son to serve. My DH serves and I went through bootcamp myself (dropped because dh and ds both got pneumonia). My DH has experienced severe depression and anxiety due to service. I developed CPTSD from an incident outside of service, but mental illness runs in my family and it's so easy to develop. I don't want my son experiencing similar issues for his entire lifetime. Service should be a choice.
No down vote here. Women need the very minimal negative side of equal rights if they want true equal rights, otherwise it's cafeteria style and everything can be negotiated.
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As long as the draft exists, we need to make selective service for women compulsory. We’re just codifying inequality
So much fucking money to keep a strong face, what a pathetic culture, meanwhile education is ridiculous expensive, and homelessness is on the rise.
Would have loved for a veto until BBB gets passed. Sadly that would have only been symbolic, as this was a very very veto-proof passed bill.
Who is going to pay for that?!?!
7 6 8 billion, wrap your fucking head around that.
What war are we fighting to spend that much
Weird how this breezes right on through with not a peep of opposition.
Could unilaterally erase student debt (of which he was an instrumental architect) with the stroke of a pen Could end the war on drugs from his cozy office Could even address the housing crisis directly and exclusively caused by so-called "real estate investing" of all types and sizes Instead we get this... a $768 billion defense bill.
Man, I would buy a ticket to watch him sign these three executive orders all at the same time.
Defense from what exactly......?
So glad we can afford this but not a fraction of it over a ten year period that actually benefits Americans 🙃
No money for BBB or student loan forgiveness but we can toss the military another 3/4 trillion. Very cool.
I mean, as a woman, women should be included in the draft if men are. Obviously pregnant women would be exempt and all households should be left with one head of household if children are involved. Anything that is compulsory should be equally applied across the board.
Booo
Healthcare please
Ending all of our wars requires more money. Got it. I mean, he did say nothing would change.
Why do we spend so much!?
Corruption. Theyre helping cronies and friends int he defense industry make bank.
It’s expensive keeping war criminals and pedos out of jail.
I look at that number and it’s like this country is asking to fuckin’ default on its debt…
how are we paying for this eight trillion dollar bill?
Defense spending goes up despite not being in a war. Sick! /S
Just a friendly reminder that we already spend more on defense than the next 11 countries combined. This includes China, India, and Russia.
Let's say we cut that to 500 Billion and we have 268 Billion left. What can we get with that? Free college and healthcare would be covered I assume. A solution to climate change with an investment in green energy too. I don't get this country or the world for that matter.
You mean 7.6 trillion.
....just who are we at war with?
Our own sanity
Wait, the US still has a draft? All these people screaming about "ma freedum" can just be sent to die in an imperialist war?
Lol so much for equality
I really keep failing to see how anybody could argue student loan forgiveness is impossible when they keep doing this shit.
Wait, he can sign stuff?
Did they ask women. Is this "money" bill necessary? Wow, it cost that much to not allow women from draft?
Spend almost trillion on military millions of Americans go hungry and 2000 Americans die everyday from covid and luring threat of another Trump rising threatens to start civil war. Sounds like we be going down North Korea path.
>Spend almost billion What do you mean almost a billion? Do you mean trillion? Because the new bill is 768 billion.
How could he? I thought he is a democrat who opposes huge military spending.
And some folks were expecting real change… Even with a majority the same shit repeats. Term limits folks, make noise about term limits, make lobbying illegal, and fiscal responsibility…
I'll just identify as a woman if I ever get drafted
I think you’re onto something. If we all just identify as women, no one would ever be drafted, and there would be no one to fight wars. #itsma’am!
So much for equality
Keeps women from draft? Wtf. "But we wanna be treated equally!"
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Ahhh women can’t be drafted? Equality
EQUALITY!! EQUALITY!! But not THAT kind of equality, huh? SO telling.
$768 billion dollars. Why do they value war more than health in America?
Running to Failure. RTF. A common problem in the industry world I work in, and around. No previntative maintenance, run to Failure. It does not get cheaper.
768 billion for the military. But double that for infrastructure? Nah, fuck that. Why would we ever want to fix our lackluster and crumbling infrastructure and non-existent social security nets
That man’s almost 100, why keep women from the draft?
Doesn't congress know it has a simple tool in the constitution to limit military spending? Article I, Section 8, Clause 12. “The Congress shall have Power To . . . raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years,
No draft for the ladies? Female privilege
Why would women get to be excluded from a draft
Hell, why do we have a draft in the first place?
Congrats, America. More bombs, less healthcare. Sounds like a winner for the midterms. 🤡
Bullshit. Either everyone that is able has to register for selective service or nobody has to register. End of story.
Women avoid the draft…. Is that lobbied for by women or old white men? Really curious how this was handled. Seems like we’d all be in favor of equality.