Trump Plans for Nuclear Arsenal Require $1.2 Trillion, Congressional Review States

[Judi Lynn]

Source: New York Times


By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
OCT. 31, 2017


The price tag of President Trump’s vision of remaking the American nuclear arsenal soared on Tuesday as a new government estimate put the cost of a 30-year makeover at $1.2 trillion, more than 20 percent higher than earlier figures.

The rebuilding proposal includes the nation’s nuclear weapons, bombers, missiles and submarines.

The report from the Congressional Budget Office was the most authoritative accounting yet of the full cost of rebuilding an aging, potentially vulnerable nuclear arsenal that often relies on Cold War-era technology. It was published just weeks before the Pentagon is supposed to issue its first broad nuclear strategy of the Trump administration, an assessment called the Nuclear Posture Review.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, who had been a skeptic about the need to preserve the nuclear force’s 400 land-based missiles, in silos across the American West, said in September that he had changed his view and now believed it was necessary to preserve them.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/31/us/politics/trump-nuclear-weapons-arsenal-congressional-budget.html

[Irish_Dem]

1. Crumbling infrastructure, lack of affordable college, lack of health care, etc. etc.

But we have this kind of money to buy Trump some new toys.

[Coventina]

3. We're mirroring North Korea!

All hail Glorious Leader!!

[Irish_Dem]

5. We get closer to third world country status every day. nt

[davekriss]

11. Just wait

Once Trump and the GOP blow a huge hole in our already deep deficit, they’re going to start saying we just can’t afford social security and Medicare. We have to cut back, maybe even eliminate them. It’ll be the “fiscally prudent” thing to do.

So what all this means is a bigly huge transfer of wealth from the many to the few. That’s what modern Republicans are all about. Nothing else matters to them, not even the sovereignty of our nation. Traitors, all!!

[Irish_Dem]

12. Same thing Putin did. He pulled a lot of money out of the Russian economy.

For himself. He is now the richest man in the world, worth $600 billion.
Richest man in the history of the world.

And Russian citizens now have a lower standard of living than the Chinese.

[Judi Lynn]

2. US nuclear arsenal to cost $1.2tn over next 30 years, independent CBO report finds

CBO finds total price tag marks 25% increase from previous estimate
Nuclear Posture Review under way and expected by end of the year
Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday 31 October 2017 18.20 EDT

The cost of the US nuclear arsenal over the next 30 years will be over $1.2tn, even before any new weapons ordered by the Trump administration, and is unlikely to be affordable without cuts elsewhere in the defence budget, according to a independent congressional report.

The total price tag marks nearly a 25% increase from previous estimate, taking in the modernisation programme established under the Obama administration, which account for $400bn, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found. The costs would peak in the 2020s and the 2030s.

A new Nuclear Posture Review is under way and expected around the end of the year. Trump has repeatedly vowed to bolster the nuclear stockpile, and the defence department is reportedly considering the development of a low-yield warhead for a ballistic missile, and reintroducing a sea-launched cruise missile, among a variety of new options.

. . .

“If these plans reach fruition, it would be the largest nuclear build-up since the Reagan administration. This is not affordable,” said Stephen Schwartz, an independent nuclear analyst and editor of the book, Atomic Audit: The Costs and Consequences of US Nuclear Weapons Since 1940.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/31/us-nuclear-arsenal-cost-cbo-report

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Give $1.2 T to 1% by tax cuts, borrow it at rising interest, & give it again to corporate welfare.nt

[Cryptoad]

8. Hell 1.2 T$ is chicken feed

O Yellar and lying Ryan can cut SS and MC that much with their hands tied behind their backs! Starting to look like it coming sooooon!

[Plucketeer]

6. Sheer fucking LUNACY!!!

But would we expect anything less from our Dolt-in-Chief?

[angrychair]

7. I hear

There is a two-man “utility company” in Whitefish, MT that looking for a new contract. I bet that would do that for $1.2 trillion dollars.

Better yet, I bet there is a Trump company, that tRump has nothing to do with the management and day-to-day operations of or its decision making, that could bid on that contract. Work done by highly respected trump university graduates. The company will have the success and name recognition of trump airlines.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It'd be a lot cheaper to give Trump a lifetime supply of Viagra

and achieve roughly the same.

[Irish_Dem]

13. You nailed it Muriel. nt

[cstanleytech]

10. Its doable just cut the military budget for everything else down to 150 billion a year and shuffle

1/2 the money being saved to the nuclear arsenal and half to infrastructure spending.

[SergeStorms]

14. No.

Just...........no. We can't keep giving the defense industry the money we need for human services. Fuck.............you.............Trump.

[The Wizard]

15. So why

does the military keep buying new weapons every year when we haven't used the ones bought in previous budgets?

[Vinca]

16. No problem. He's going to cut taxes so there will be more money coming in.