Posted on 06/19/2016 5:40:12 AM PDT by efs111
WASHINGTON The next base Christmas party might not feature any active-duty flutists or tuba players.
The House on Thursday passed legislation sponsored by former A-10 pilot Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., that bars the military from using its many troop bands to entertain at dinners, dances and social events.
The bill limits performances to formal military ceremonies and funeral honors.
It is the latest attempt to cut back the roughly $500 million that the Defense Department spends annually on bands, which date back to the birth of the countrys armed forces but have recently run into criticism as Congress wrangles with tight budgets.
Read more at: http://www.stripes.com/1.415169
That’s probably for 2 or 3 flutes. A solid silver Haynes can easily be $5,000.
Defund PBS & NPR first!!!!
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The GOP will never gain any semblance of credibility until it does what you suggested. It would be a nice first step toward showing some commitment to cut the largesse.
...and sex change operations.
Music is Haram.
Yes, that’s a lot to spend on bands. They need to cut back. However, the ‘esteemed’ legislative branch costs nearly $5 billion a year. Talk about wasteful spending! It would be fascinating to know exactly what it spends on its own entertainment.
I used to drive by the buildings on the House side quite often. There were always catering trucks parked outside. And they were trucks from elite catering services. Not Papa John’s. Congress likes the good life.
A great alternative for active duty military units would be to use unit “morale” funds to hire military reenactment bands. They might even contract with an entire fort to work at dozens of non-official and non-funeral events.
Such bands often have rare period instruments and play music of historical relevance. They might even have vocalists.
Bet they will play at Obama parties.
It’s really disappointing how many lazy freepers there are that they can’t be bothered to read even the excerpt - let alone the actual article. And then off they go proudly putting their ignorance on display.
Half a billion per year for bands? I find that utterly ludicrous. The defense department is like all other bureaucracies, wasteful, bloated and unaccountable.
We really are moving in the wrong direction in our country.
I expect we could easily save that much money out of the Air Force budget if they didn’t fly the big cheese and his family to Hawaii or Martha’s vineyard so often.
We made six crossings on five different ships.
The Patrick was one of them.
The last was on the W. A. Mann.
We stopped for a day in Honolulu, toured the Queen’s Palace and came home via Oakland. Dad caught a cab to the local Buick dealer and retuened to the ship with a brand new ‘61 Wagon.
We packed up our stuff and headed east.
California looked damed good to me back then. I was 13 years old.
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