The important things we can't afford, and the crazy things we find money for

[Eddie Haskell]

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-important-things-we-dont-have-money-for-and-the-crazy-things-we-do-have-money-for

The city of Detroit says that it is totally broke and has no money for pensions...

...but somehow the city has 444 million dollars to spend on a new hockey arena for the Detroit Red Wings.

Large numbers of federal employees have been hit with mandatory furloughs in 2013 due to the sequester...

...but somehow the federal government is able to spend tens of millions of dollars to fill our skies with surveillance drones.

The U.S. government is so broke that it has had to borrow more than a trillion dollars from China...

...but somehow we have plenty of money to help "modernize China’s energy grid".

The U.S. Congress has cut $60,000,000 for schools on Indian reservations across the country...

...but somehow the IRS is able to pay out $70,000,000 in bonuses to their workers.

It is being projected that federal budget cuts will cost the U.S. economy 1.6 million jobs through the end of 2014...

...but somehow the federal government has plenty of money to provide many former members of Congress with six-figure annual incomes for life...

[tridim]

1. I want to see one of these drones that "fills the sky"

Can you point me to one of those filled skies?

This post is mostly libertarian paranoia and tin-foil woo. I really enjoyed the shift from "Detroit" to the "U.S. Government". It's just that easy!

[gtar100]

3. Too bad. Because the topic really is worth an honest discussion.

I think the DU op extracted some of the more salient points ("filled" skies aside) but the writer of the linked article went off the deep end with blaming Obama for everything else.

This topic deserves a researcher and writer without a political axe to grind.

[Egalitarian Thug]

7. Barking up the wrong tree there. +1

[1awake]

5. I'm not so sure about filling the skies

But drones have been acknowledged to have been/are being used domestically. I think filling the skies was a reach lol, but how many drones being used over American territories is to many?

[Scuba]

2. There are indeed many misguided priorities, but the article is filled with crap.

"... the Obamas are able to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on exotic vacations."


Crap. And it links to FoxNews, the sewer from which so much crap flows.

[ctsnowman]

10. Thanks for the warning.

The last thing I want to do is go to a right wing hack site. Clicks = $$

[bobclark86]

6. Libertarian nutjob junk...

"The Obama administration is forcing the U.S. Army to reduce the number of active combat brigades from 45 to 33...
...but the Obama administration has no problem finding millions of dollars to send to radical jihadist Syrian rebels that are beheading innocent Christians over in Syria."

Yup... because by Obama administration, we mean John McCain and congressional Republicans... and I won't even touch the bit where the Army doesn't WANT that many brigades and doesn't WANT more tanks, but GOP twits demand them.

I could go on with the Obama bashing crap, but the worst part, though, are the ads:

"Revolution Realty: NORTH IDAHO SURVIVALIST Land & Homes"

"Extreme Food Storage"

"How to Survive the End of the World" by James Wesley, Rawles (a well-known fundie nut... yes, the comma is supposed to be in his name, allegedly)

"The Beginning of The End, by Michael T. Snyder (with a pic of the "All-seeing Eye" on the cover)"

And the obligatory cash for gold ads.

[Phillyindy]

8. Awesome post. THIS is....

...the message we need to get out there. The average American has no clue that we have more then enough money, its our priorities that are obscenely messed up.

[MicaelS]

11. "The Economic Collapse"????

Survival Mom
Preppers

This is a batshit crazy website.

[Eddie Haskell]

12. Oops, I must confess I missed the bottom half of the article.

Grandkids came to the door and I posted prematurely. I don't blame Obama for any spending issues since our priorities seem to have been negotiated by the Super Committee. Still, priorities are really screwed up and I think we need to point out that fact whenever we can.

[awoke_in_2003]

13. USS Gerald Ford is another $14 billion...

Is it possible for an aircraft carrier to trip?