Thread by @msbellows

Context thread:
• The defense bill is DOUBLE the COMBINED costs of COVID stimulus + infrastructure + Build Back Better. (Where are the deficit hawks like @Sen_JoeManchin?)
• And it's unnecessary: U.S. defense $ exceed Russia + China + the next 9 countries COMBINED. ...
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https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1475657788441387009

@Sen_JoeManchin Some will argue, as @BroadbrainTV does here, that it's ok because "the defense bill is a jobs bill." And that's sort of true: the defense industry accounts for at least 800,000 jobs and 10% of U.S. manufacturing. is.gd/Brn8g0 ...
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV But as a job creator, defense sucks. About 14MM people work in manufacturing; at 10% of total manufacturing, defense should employ about 1.4MM, but actually employs about half that, because defense toys' materials, research, etc. are expensive compared to labor cost. ...
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV So: national defense is important, but the U.S. would be perfectly secure with a fraction of what we spend. Again: we spend more than Russia, China, and the next 9 countries (most of them our allies!) COMBINED.
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV And yes, jobs are important, except "clean energy and health care spending create 50 percent more jobs than the equivalent amount of spending on the military. Education spending creates more than twice as many jobs."
is.gd/1ZhBoI; is.gd/JDjAde
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV So if we don't need it militarily, and could create more jobs by spending the same $ on domestic programs, WHY do we spend so much on defense?

Congress. The invisible third leg of the "military-industrial complex" that hippie peacenik Dwight Eisenhower warned us about.
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV I mean, it's not JUST Congress, but Congress is the key, because defense contractors have carefully ensured that every single Congresscritter has a stake in defense spending. There's no district that doesn't have defense jobs: ...
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV "The defense industry has carefully crafted business to maximize congressional interest. The new Ford-class aircraft carrier is built of parts that are made in 330 of 435 congressional districts and forty-five states."
is.gd/kvvuVF
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV (Quote above is from some hippie peacenik source... (checks notes)... the U.S. Military Academy at West Point website.)
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV And this crap doesn't just hurt the U.S. people economically. It affects foreign policy, and makes us LESS safe!

E.g.: one 9f the largest recipients of U.S. military aid is Israel – a wealthy country that already has the strongest military in its region (incl. 60 nukes). ...
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV Israel doesn't need U.S. aid. Israel's use of American-paid-for, American-made weapons (incl. in its illegal occupation of Palestinian land and repression of Palestinian protesters) are a HUGE reason many in the Islamic world fear and hate us. It's one reason 9/11 happened.

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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV So if our military aid to Israel isn't needed by Israel, doesn't strengthen the U.S. militarily (we have no bases there), and poisons many people's perceptions of the U.S., why do we give it?

Because that aid comes with a catch: Israel must spend our $ on U.S.-MADE weapons.
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV So U.S. military aid to Israel (and to many other countries) is really a slush fund: under the guise of "foreign aid," we're actually just giving U.S. taxpayer $ to the U.S. defense industry.
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV Arms exports is one of our largest industries. bbc.com/news/business-…

But we ourselves often are the ones paying for the arms we export.
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV It's a nice scam...

... but, again, not an efficient one, jobs-wise or U.S.-security-wise: carnegieendowment.org/2021/05/18/dis…
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV To sum up:
• Showing "fiscal discipline" by voting against BBB or other domestic programs while ignoring the bloated defense budget is, as Garrison Keillor once put it, like trying to lose weight by giving up anchovies. (Hi, @Sen_JoeManchin, you disingenuous putz!)
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV • Congresscritters worried about constituents' defense jobs should pay more attention to the reality that defense spending is COSTING their constituents jobs, because MORE people could be well-employed by spending those $ on butter, not guns. ...
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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV And:

• We voters and activists need to pressure our representatives to acknowledge Ike's truth: that both national security AND employment would not only be preserved, but BETTER served, by radically reducing the "defense" budget and investing the $ in people instead.

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@Sen_JoeManchin @BroadbrainTV P.S.: Also, and always, f*ck @Sen_JoeManchin and his faux concern for fiscal discipline. You can't be a serious deficit hawk AND vote for the bloated defense budget, you schmuck.

P.P.S.: Great comment from @BroadbrainTV. The decoupling is the key.

https://twitter.com/BroadbrainTV/status/1475920480624332801

@BroadbrainTV Also, as @costsofwar points out here, our bloated defense establishment is terrible for the climate, too:

https://twitter.com/CostsOfWar/status/1475510024680222725