Defense Bill: Waste to the Core

Today, President Barack Obama lauded the congressional passage of a $680 billion defense spending bill as a shining example of cutting waste in government. But rather than talk about its entirely unnecessarily bloated price tag, he touched on the impressiveness of truly menial cuts in defense spending.

Meanwhile, funding for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan skyrocket as well over $200 billion has become the standard yearly expenditure, nearly one-third of all defense dollars go to fortify occupations there. In addition, much of the remaining tainted funny money will be used to prop up the overstretched U.S. military presence worldwide.

Currently, the U.S. has over 700 military installation in over 130 nations. These occupations include such notable allies as Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Colombia, Italy and Saudi Arabia. According to famed historian and Japanese-American foreign policy expert Chalmers Johnson, thus far only the Philippines, Spain and in 2009 Ecuador, are the only nations which have quite literally expelled American bases and troops.

Strangely enough the bill includes a hate crime provision making it a federal offense to assault someone based on gender, race or sexual orientation and another provision which effectively denies Guantanamo Bay captives entry into the United States and ensuring its continued existence. These addendum so obviously reveal the sharply quixotic "partisan" divide gripping the pigheadedly unthoughtful and downright arrogant ruling class.

To call such an atrociously wasteful bill a cost saving measure, a "victory" for America is a bold faced lie.

Sure, it may cut out the extreme, but with President Obama poised to send another 40,000 'over the top', this exaggerated claim only will foretell the real spending crisis awaiting the U.S. military and ultimately, the American People.