Free Republic

There has been a load of harrumphing and indignation from the left over something Donald Trump said a few days ago when he said that he would not run to the aid of countries who did not meet their financial obligation to NATO. And one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, well, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us? I said, you didn't pay. You're delinquent. He said, yes, let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever...

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,”...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump vetoed a bipartisan defense policy bill on Wednesday and raised the prospect that the United States could face a government shutdown during a pandemic, stirring new turmoil in Washington as he headed to Florida for Christmas.Angry at his fellow Republicans in Congress, Trump sought to refashion two complex pieces of legislation that passed Congress by wide, bipartisan margins after months of negotiation. Trump followed through on a threat to veto the defense bill and demanded dramatic changes to a $2.3 trillion package that funds the federal government and provides nearly $900 billion in...

President Trump has harshly criticized the Federal Reserve in recent weeks for inching up the standard interest rate to guard against rising inflation and threatening the four percent economic growth rate the billionaire likes to brag about. Here’s another reason: The higher interest rates on your credit card balances and car loans also apply to the federal government’s borrowing. RECOMMENDED

Spending in US dollars 1. USA $647,000,000,000 2. China $151,000,000,000 3. Saudi Arabia $56,725,000,000 4. United Kingdom $50,000,000,000 5. India $47,000,000,000 6. Russia $47,000,000,000 7. Germany $45,200,000,000 8. Japan $44,000,000,000 9. France $40,000,000,000 10. South Korea $40,000,000,000

(CNN)President Donald Trump's reasoning for the United States stopping war games on the Korean Peninsula because of cost is "ridiculous," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Tuesday night. "It is ridiculous," Graham told CNN's Anderson Cooper. Graham continued by saying he did support stopping the drills, but in order "to give North Korea some breathing space to see if we can get a deal," noting that "the money we spend training with our allies is money well spent." "It's not a burden onto the American taxpayer to have a forward deployed force in South Korea. It brings stability. It's a warning...

Russian military spending fell by a fifth last year, its first decline in nearly two decades, with tighter purse-strings likely to affect Moscow's military activity ahead. But while global military spending rose one percent to $1,739 billion last year, Russia's fell 20 percent in real terms to $66.3 billion. Russia's finances are still fragile following a two-year economic downturn brought on by Western sanctions and a collapse in global oil prices.STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Russian military spending fell by a fifth last year, its first decline in nearly two decades, with tighter purse-strings likely to affect Moscow's military activity ahead, a...

Staff Sgt. Artur Shvartsberg—Marine Corps Air Station Yuma Co The Department of Defense plans on putting its surplus fleet of AH-1W Super Cobras up for sale on the international arms market. The news comes as the USMC continues to outfit its light attack helicopter squadrons with new-build AH-1Z "Viper" derivatives of the Bell design, which traces its roots directly to the iconic UH-1 Iroquois/Huey. A recent business opportunity posting over at Fedbizops.gov describes the need for flight and maintenance training, sustainment, and refitting "Whisky Cobras" with new commercially available off-the-shelf avionics upgrades in preparation for foreign transfers of the type...

A new report estimates banning transgender service members would set the U.S. back $960 million, challenging President Donald Trump's pro-ban argument about "the tremendous medical costs" associated with permitting transgender people to serve in the military. The report, co-authored by the Palm Center and current and retired professors at the Naval Postgraduate School, estimates the cost to replace transgender service members would be 100 times greater than current estimates for the annual cost of providing them transition-related care. "President Trump said that he wants to fire honorably serving transgender troops in order to save money, but that begs the question,...

President Obama held Gates over from the Bush era probably to tout his bipartisan credentials. Gates was listed as a Republican. He is as much a Republican as is Colin Powell – or as Obama is bipartisan. Obama knew Gates would be a willing ally in fundamentally transforming the military (as part of transforming America) from the ass-kicking outfit he inherited to the girly men can kickers it has become. Obama promised to disarm America to a level acceptable to Islam! He did, and Gates was a willing ally. Gates immediately fell in line with Obama’s anti-military, anti-American, pro-Muslim programs....

The Pentagon failed to account for $6.5 trillion in its financial statement, a recently-recovered Inspector General’s report on the 2015 fiscal year said. It reveals the audit of the Department of Defense was “materially misstated.” The army failed to provide “accurate, complete, timely and well-supported” documents that could have explained the use of trillions of dollars in quarterly and yearend adjustments. The US military made $2.8 trillion in wrongful adjustments in one quarter alone in 2015, and $6.5 trillion for the year, but could not provide anything that would detail what it spent the money on. There were a total...

SIERRA VISTA — A representative from the Army Corps of Engineers revealed the findings Wednesday of a four-year munitions study of more than 1,500 acres in the San Pedro Riparian Conservation Area (SPRNCA), southeast of the San Pedro House. The study was looking for live munitions or other environmental factors from World War II Army use that would impact the acreage. Two live explosives and fragments of explosives in the dense, thorny acreage were discovered. A third live explosive was carried out by a hiker and turned over to tlocal authorities. “It is not a hospitable site,” said 1st Lt....

In 1995, he introduced a bill to terminate America’s nuclear weapons program. As late as 2002, he supported a 50 percent cut for the Pentagon. And he says corrupt defense contractors are to blame for “massive fraud” and a “bloated military budget.” Since he arrived in Congress, Bernie Sanders has been a fierce crusader against Pentagon spending, calling for defense cuts that few Democrats have been willing to support. Should he defeat Hillary Clinton, analysts say, he will likely be the biggest critic of the Pentagon to win a major party nomination since World War II. Story Continued Below “He...

Chinese fighter pilots trying to enforce Beijing's control of nearby airspace must be confused about the U.S. military. They have been trained to expect the latest in military technology from the world's sole superpower. But the U.S. planes they intercept look more like exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum. Earlier this month, two Chinese jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane over the East China Sea. The RC-135 is based on an airframe developed in the 1950s; the last military version of the airframe was assembled in 1965. In May, the Chinese intercepted a U.S....

Global military spending reached almost $1.7 trillion in 2015, marking a year-on-year increase for the first time since 2011, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks arms expenditure around the world. The United States remained far and away the top spender, which despite a dip from 2014, accounted for more than a third of total global spending. It was followed by China and then, perhaps surprisingly, Saudi Arabia, which supplanted Russia in third place.

In another acknowledgment that sanctions and diplomacy haven't deterred Russian aggression in Eastern Europe, the Obama administration said Tuesday it wants to quadruple military spending in Europe to reassure NATO allies still anxious over Moscow's intervention in Ukraine. The spending would increase to $3.4 billion under the new plan, which will be introduced next week as part of Mr. Obama's final budget. Having been unable to dislodge Russian President Vladimir Putin's proxy forces from Ukraine through diplomacy, Mr. Obama now wants to spend the extra money on "continuous U.S. armored brigade rotations" through stations in Central and Eastern Europe, beefed-up...

China’s legislative spokeswoman says the country’s military budget will grow by about 10 percent in the coming year. […] Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the National People’s Congress, says this year’s military budget figure—to be confirmed Thursday—is in line with an overall increase in government spending of about 10 percent. …

After about 30 years of using the Beretta as the primary sidearm pistol for the U.S. military, the Pentagon is seeking a new gun contract. For gun manufacturers, this kind of a contract is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. While the Beretta lasted three decades, the U.S. military's first semiautomatic standard-issue sidearm, the M1911 from Colt, lasted nearly 90 years. It was issued during the U.S. war in the Philippines through the World Wars to Vietnam and beyond.

More than $725 million was spent by the Army on a high-tech network for tracking supplies and expenses that failed to comply with federal financial reporting rules meant to allow auditors to track spending, according to an inspector general’s report issued Wednesday. The Global Combat Support System-Army, a logistical support system meant to track supplies, spare parts and other equipment, was launched in 1997. In 2003, the program switched from custom software to a web-based commercial software system. About $95 million was spent before the switch was made, according to the report from the Department of Defense IG. As of...

Liberals love spending money, especially when that spending is done by big government using taxpayer dollars. However, there is one area where liberals, who throw out gobs of cash for every breath they seem to take, always find themselves cost-conscious and frugal: the military. Yep, government can spend like a drunken sailor on shore leave, but once the military comes into the equation, liberals act like coupon-cutting housewives. It was announced earlier today that Chuck Hagel has plans to shrink the size of the Army down to pre-World War II levels. It's not just the Army getting whacked as the...