Winning the Future, Old School

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Ezra Klein:

The military made out quite nicely in the 2012 budget proposal. The administration is cutting $78 billion from the Defense Department’s budget — known as “security discretionary spending” — over the next 10 years. That’s a bit of a blow, but compare it to the $400 billion they’re cutting from domestic discretionary spending — that’s education, income security, food safety, environmental protection, etc. — over the next 10 years. And keep in mind that the domestic discretionary budget is only half as large as the military’s budget. So if there were equal cuts, the military would be losing $800 billion.

Put another way, Obama has proposed cuts of about 1% from a defense budget that’s already the largest in the world, versus cuts of about 10% from a domestic budget that’s already one of the stingiest in the world. And that’s moderate compared to what Republicans want to do. As Ezra says, this puts a little different spin on “winning” the future, doesn’t it?

This is hardly our only option, though. Adam Weinstein has more on the defense budget here.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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