Feeding the Insatiable Pentagon

The U.S.Navy is scrambling to spend the billions of dollars in extra spending that the Trump administration and Congress lavished on it as part of the Pentagon's 2018 budget. For many of the roughly 5,000 workers at a major aircraft-repair facility in San Diego, that means overtime -- lots of it. In a mandatory effort to spend the entire 2018 budget and justify equal or higher spending in 2019, some workers at the North Island naval air facility are browsing the Internet, socializing with co-workers, and even sleeping on the job. Many workers have little choice but to kill time while on the clock. Even before the new overtime requirement -- supervisors had warned employees that not working at least 15 percent overtime could face "an appropriate penalty... for an act of employee misconduct" -- some North Island employees were only working at half-capacity due to bottle necks in other parts of the Navy's aircraft-maintenance process.

So-called budgetary burn-offs are not confined to the military, because it is general knowledge in government agencies that it's important to "use it or lose it." Not only does the federal government require agencies to return any unsent money at the end of the fiscal year, administration officials and congressional appropriators tend to adjust budgets upward or downward  depending upon how fully a given agency spent its previous allocations.

The mandatory overtime at North Island, which began on March 11, could continue until the facility spends every dollar the administration requested and Congress appropriated for 2018. This year the Navy asked for $1.4 billion for aircraft maintenance at depot facilities including North Island -- a $200 million increase over 2017. Congress appropriated $640 billion for the Defense Department for 2018, a nearly $40 billion boost compared to 2017.

When President Trump began to speak about a "hollowed-out" military and many Republican lawmakers joined in that out-of-tune chorus, the major priorities were identified as training for military personnel to meet their mission, and replacing military hardware used up in the many military conflicts the U.S. has been engaged  in after 9/11. Trump revealed how false were these justifications when he asked for $25 billion to be taken from the Pentagon budget and used to help finance a border wall. Then, when Trump was schooled on the proposition that money appropriated for one purpose cannot be expended for another purpose, he decided to have the military help guard the border between Mexico and the United States. With his usual lack of precision and detail, Trump wants 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to perform largely undefined functions. And, of course, the money to pay for the National Guard will come from the Pentagon's apparently starved budget.

The U.S., with about five percent of the world's population, now accounts for almost 40 percent of the world's military spending, and with the very large additions to Pentagon spending over this year and the next, that percentage will undoubtedly climb well into the 40s. We spend more on the military than the next nine nations combined, which include China and Russia. Military spending now accounts for 55 percent of discretionary spending, and will undoubtedly climb into the 60s with the two-year spending increases.

When House Speaker Paul Ryan announced his retirement, he mentioned as his two most important accomplishments, the passage of the tax plan and building up the U.S. military. The money that has been shoveled to the Pentagon has been a major cause of the huge budgetary deficit and the subsequent starving of the domestic economy.

ADDENDUMS:
* Kellyanne Conway's tweet of October 29, 2016: "Astonished by the all-out assault on Comey by Team Clinton. Suggesting he is a partisan interfering with the election is dangerous & and unfair."

*After Nikki Haley promised that new sanctions on-Russia would be imposed the next day, President Trump put on the brakes.

*Number of Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S.: 2016 - 15,479; 2017 - 3,024; and 2018 - 11.

* Andrew Wheeler, former coal mining lobbyist, was confirmed by the Senate as deputy administrator of the EPA. He served as an adviser to Sen. James M. Inhofe (R- Okla.), a high-profile critic of  climate science.

*More than 70 meetings between Trump staffers and Russian operatives have taken place, many of them initially denied.

* Trump signed an executive order strengthening work requirements or low-income Americans who receive government assistance through programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and welfare.

3 Reasons to Reject Gorsuch; More Kellyanne Weirdness; and Trump's War on he ACA

3 Reasons to Reject Judge Gorsuch
1. As part of a three-judge panel on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Gorsuch ruled that a Denver, Colorado school's treatment of an autistic student was O.K., because it was "merely... more than de minimis," or minimal. The federal law promises a "free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities." Writing for an unanimous Supreme Court (now 8), Chief Justice John Roberts ruled that a school must provide for a disabled student in a way that "is more demanding than that 'merely more than de minimis' test applied by the Tenth Circuit."

2. While associate attorney general from June 2005 to August 2006, Neil Gorsuch devised methods to allow, and then cover-up, waterboarding, and other "enhanced interrogation practices."

3.  When Judge Gorsuch was asked about what he would have done if President Trump had asked him his position on Roe v. Wade, Gorsuch said he would have "walked out of the room." Given that Trump had promised to name a judge who would overturn Roe v. Wade, Gorsuch was effectively saying that Trump had broken yet another campaign promise by not assuring himself that Gorsuch was anti-choice. Trump had said that an anti-choice judge was a "litmus test" for him.

Kellyanne's Hidden Joke and Her Investigation Conclusion
Kellyanne Conway, speaking at the National Review Institute's Idea Summit, lamented that "No one can take a joke  either, that is definitely true." Kellyanne was referring to her statement that cameras are now in microwaves.

It is apparently not necessary to wait for the results of the investigation of Russian meddling in a U.S. election and collusion between Trump, his advisers and the Russian government, as Kellyanne has concluded that there is "No connection, no fruits."

"Sabotage" Investigated
In a letter to senators Patty Murray and Elizabeth Warren, the Health and Human Services inspector general's office said it had begun a "fact-finding review" of the Trump administration's decision to pull advertising from Healthcare.gov.  The office will also look at action to stop paid advertising and temporarily suspend other outreach efforts for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Moreover,  the office will review the effect on ACA enrollment.  President Trump has said that the ACA will "implode" due to its own deep flaws.

Enforce Law Against "All Removal Aliens"
John Kelly, head of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), has issued a memo to clarify how his agencies will seek to adhere to President Trump's executive orders, which call on immigration agents to enforce the law against "all removable aliens." Trump himself call for the DHS to go after nearly every undocumented immigrant by pursuing those who (1) have been convicted of crimes; (2) have not been convicted but merely charged with a crime; (3) have committed any act that could be construed as a "chargeable offense;" (4) have used a fake Social Security number to work or pay taxes; (5) have availed themselves unlawfully of public benefits like food stamps or public assistance; (6) have a deportation order against them; or (7) pose a public-safety risk in the eyes of any immigration officer. These categories are so  broad that they eliminate any manner of "prioritizing" enforcement. (Source: Julianne Hing, "ICE Ramps Up," The Nation, March 20, 2017.)

ADDENDUMS:
*At the G-20 meeting, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin rejected repeated entreaties to include in the meeting's joint statement, language emphasizing the importance of free trade.

*Trump's tweets of March 19: {1} "James Clapper and others stated that there is no evidence that Potus colluded with Russia. This story is FAKE NEWS and everyone knows it!" (2) "The Democrats made up and pushed the Russian story as an excuse for running a terrible campaign. Big advantage in Electoral College lost!"

*Geert Willders, the Dutch Trump, was defeated in the Netherlands' leadership race.

*Trump is likely to order Scott Pruitt to withdraw and rewrite a set of Obama-era regulations known as the Clean Power Plan.