Keyword: defensespending
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Question: Do you think we spend too much on national defense?
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While left wing staffers in the Biden Administration’s State Department are “concerned” that the death cult Taliban has an all-male government, moderate Democrats are (finally) beginning to push back on the insanity of the so-called progressive left. Indeed, when these same woke Administration staff requested, as part of the defense budget a weak, flaccid military spending line item, moderate Congressional Democrats pushed to expand that budget by $24 billion more. But budget realities still need to be observed, and while we need to keep the military strong, we need to find efficiencies while doing so. The Air Force has the...
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On Wednesday, President Donald Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2021. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate passed the NDAA by wide margins, more than enough to override the president’s veto. This bill may become the first Trump veto Congress will override. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) supported the bill despite the president’s veto threats, claiming that the NDAA will deter Chinese aggression. Yet Trump claimed that the bill will help China. “No one has worked harder, or approved more money for the military, than I have — over $2 trillion,”...
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The portion of Americans who believe the nation’s defense spending as “about right” has reached a record high, at 50 percent, compared to 31 percent who say it is too much and 17 percent who say it is too little, a survey from Gallup found. Those saying spending is about right has nearly doubled from 27 percent in 2016, most of it migration from those who said spending was too little, which fell from 37 percent to 17 percent. The shift in opinion is largely driven by Republicans, who were far less likely to believe the U.S. was not spending...
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House Democrats are unhappy with border security funding included in a massive government spending package poised to become law in a matter of days. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus confronted Democratic leaders Tuesday in a closed-door meeting about a provision in the fiscal 2020 spending measure that would provide $1.375 billion for the construction of a southern border wall. Democrats are also angry about language maintaining funding levels for detention facilities for illegal immigrants, as well as a provision allowing President Trump to maintain his authority to transfer existing federal funding to border security projects. “I’m not voting for it,” Rep....
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The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a $738 billion defense bill that funds the US-Mexico border wall, the Space Force, and continued US support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen, handing President Donald Trump a big win... The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed in a 377 to 48 vote... The NDAA now moves to the Republican-controlled Senate, where it's expected to pass next week... The bill provides for a massive boost in military spending compared to 2019 — an increase of $22 billion — and authorizes the creation of a Space Force, a sixth branch of the military that...
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Donald Trump's dream of building a "big, beautiful wall" along the southern border took a hit yesterday when a federal judge ruled that Pentagon funds totaling $3.6 billion diverted for 11 construction projects along the southern border could not be used for wall construction. Significantly, the judge, David Briones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, ruled that other funds, already approved by the Supreme Court, could be spent. Those funds, which come from a Pentagon counter-narcotics fund, could still be used for wall construction. The argument being used by the city of El Paso was...
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The Air Force this week awarded Boeing a contract worth up to almost $1 billion to expand its effort to add new wings to A-10s, shortly after wrapping up a previous initiative that replaced wings on most of the fleet. “The Air Force currently has a fleet of 281 A-10s and recently announced the completion of wing replacements for 173 A-10 aircraft, by Boeing, from an earlier contract award,” the service said in an Aug. 21 release. The Aug. 21 contract allows the Air Force to re-wing up to 109 aircraft, plus three spares, “depending on how many aircraft are...
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The iconic A-10 Thunderbolt II will be flying into the late 2030s thanks to a re-winging project completed by the U.S. Air Force. Air Force Materiel Command said in a press release on Monday that 162 A-10s received new wings thanks to a $1.1 billion project that began in 2011. The contract, awarded to Boeing in 2007, required the creation of new parts for the plane’s fuselage. “At the end of the program, making sure we had all the pieces and parts that we needed to make that happen required a really significant team effort,” said Stephen Zaiser, director of...
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As the U.S. Navy gets closer to issuing the final request for proposals for its future frigate competition, or FFG(X), one particularly notable design, BAE System's Type 26, has largely been absent from the discussion. It seems particularly curious given that the British-designed ship is well on its way to becoming one of the most popular warships in its class among some of America's closest allies, with 32 examples in various configurations on order for the U.K. Royal Navy, the Royal Australian Navy, and the Royal Canadian Navy. BAE did propose a variant of the Type 26 to the Navy...
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We have a good news-bad news situation on our hands when it comes to defense spending. The good news is, it’s heading in the right direction: up. The bad news is, it remains too low to fix the spending holiday that afflicted our military for years — a failure to fund that has seriously compromised our readiness levels. Budget numbers released by Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, look impressive at first glance: $622 billion for the base defense discretionary budget. That’s an increase of 2.3 percent over the last budget the House passed. Unfortunately, it’s not enough. Once...
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ST. LOUIS — Boeing is preparing to build F-15 fighter planes for the U.S. Air Force at its St. Louis County plant even though the military branch hasn’t bought the jet in over a decade. The Chicago-based company began ramping up its F-15 production line near St. Louis after the Air Force submitted a nearly $8 billion budget request last month that included eight F-15s next year and 72 in the following four years. The request came as a surprise to many since the U.S. military has moved toward stealth fighters, such as Lockheed Martin's F-35, in recent years. Prat...
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The Pentagon has notified Congress that it has authorized the transfer of $1 billion to begin new wall construction along the US-Mexico border
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Memo: Marines Forced to Cut Readiness to Pay For Hurricane Damage, Unplanned Expenses By: Megan Eckstein Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Robert B. Neller speaks with a Marine during an exercise in Bridgeport, Calif., Feb. 11, 2019. Gen. Neller observed mountain warfare cold weather training and discussed ways to optimize training. This post has been updated to include a statement from Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer. The Marine Corps is facing “fiscal challenges without precedent” this year due to unexpected expenses forced on the small service by the Pentagon, the White House and Congress, and the commandant is looking...
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The U.S. Department of Defense is proposing to pay for President Donald Trump’s much-debated border wall by shifting funds away from projects that include $1.2 billion for schools, childcare centers and other facilities for military children, according to a list it has provided to lawmakers. The Pentagon gave Congress a list on Monday that included $12.8 billion of construction projects for which it said funds could be redirected. Around 10 percent of the list relates to educational establishments and includes school buildings for the children of service members in places like Germany, Japan, Kentucky and Puerto Rico. The move comes...
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President Trump’s visit this week to the Army’s sole surviving tank plant in Lima, Ohio is the first such presidential visit there since George W. Bush stopped by in 2003. President Obama never visited, and the depressed level of military spending during his presidency nearly shut the place down. Wrongly assuming that Russia had ceased to be a threat to global security, the Obama administration cut the number of Army armored brigades to a record low of nine. Production of upgraded Abrams tanks at the Lima site fell to a single tank per month, and the Army seriously considered mothballing...
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday blocked a Republican bill that would pay the Coast Guard without ending the ongoing partial government shutdown.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — When Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., were preparing for their upcoming deployment to the Middle East, they faced an unusual challenge: the beach they needed to train on had been washed away by Hurricane Florence. Using bulldozers and other equipment, they moved enough sand to rebuild a portion of Onslow Beach so Marines could practice moving on and off landing craft and get certified for their deployment. But almost immediately afterward, the ocean swept away the sand. Marine leaders are saying it will cost around $3.6 billion to repair the extensive damage to Camp Lejeune caused by...
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Shortened title. Full title: 3 charged-- including exec with past ties to Clintons-- in alleged scheme to defraud Pentagon billions, DOJ says Three Northern Virginia men --including one who reportedly celebrated New Year's Eve in 1999 with the Clintons-- were charged last week for their alleged roles in a scheme to defraud the Pentagon after receiving an $8 billion contract in 2012 to provide food and supplies to troops in Afghanistan, the Department of Justice announced. Federal prosecutors said the three—all executives connected to Anham FZCO, a defense contractor based in the United Arab Emirates--- knowingly gave false estimates of...
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WASHINGTON — Three men from Northern Virginia have been charged with defrauding the Department of Defense of nearly $9 billion in contracts. Abdul Huda Farouki, 75, of McLean, his brother Mazen Farouki, 73, of Boyce and Salah Maarouf, 71, of Fairfax all pleaded not guilty to eight counts each of fraud and violating sanctions against Iran. Federal prosecutors say the three men — all executives connected to defense contractor Anham FZCO based in the United Arab Emirates — were awarded an $8 billion contract to provide supplies and food to American troops in Afghanistan in 2012. The indictment says that...
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