Not Really
Mar. 13th, 2019 11:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chris_gerribComes news today that US Senator Rand Paul is upset that the US military buys lobster dinners for its troops. I note that he has not actually served in the US military. Having served, albeit many years and many pounds ago, I have thoughts.
First, given that much of our military spends significant amounts of time away from home and hearth, an occasional nice meal is very appreciated. And to be clear, the $4.6 million quoted in the article is not buying anything more than a very occasional lobster dinner. Second, I find it odd and puzzling that a member of a political party that claims to support the troops is begrudging an occasional small token of support for said troops.
Actually, I'm not really puzzled by Senator Paul. His party doesn't actually support the troops. His party wants the troops as a prop to help them with their constituents back home. They don't want to actually spend money to help them - they want to pay lip service to the concept. This is among other things that lip service is paid to, but that's another discussion.
First, given that much of our military spends significant amounts of time away from home and hearth, an occasional nice meal is very appreciated. And to be clear, the $4.6 million quoted in the article is not buying anything more than a very occasional lobster dinner. Second, I find it odd and puzzling that a member of a political party that claims to support the troops is begrudging an occasional small token of support for said troops.
Actually, I'm not really puzzled by Senator Paul. His party doesn't actually support the troops. His party wants the troops as a prop to help them with their constituents back home. They don't want to actually spend money to help them - they want to pay lip service to the concept. This is among other things that lip service is paid to, but that's another discussion.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-14 09:54 am (UTC)Beware of little Expences, a small Leak will sink a great Ship.
- Poor Richard’s Almanack,, AD 1745
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired
signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not
fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat
of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…
It is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
D W Eisenhower, April 16, 1953.
It’s more like, “The Federal Government has grown into a nation-crushng, money-guzzling monster it was never, ever intended to be.”
Indeed, it’s much more like that.
… Great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending.
For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and
our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. To
continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural,
political, and economic upheavals.
You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but
for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that
collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?
Pres R Reagan, 20 January 1981
The hate in these entries surprises me, Chris. You were not like this, before.
What are you so afraid of?
no subject
Date: 2019-03-14 12:44 pm (UTC)I find it irritating that politicians simultaneously worry about the deficit and then cut taxes in a way that increases said deficit. (Speaking personally, I didn't need a tax cut, which since my taxes went up I gues that's a good thing.)
I'm not afraid either. I disagree with the logic on display.
Re: “Open Letter”
Date: 2019-03-15 02:06 am (UTC)Well, y’ know, “I don’t want to jump to contusions…”