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Friday, May 18, 2012

House Republicans Fund "East Coast Star Wars Fantasy Base"

Via The Hill:
The House on Friday approved a sweeping defense authorization bill for 2013 that calls for the construction of an East Coast missile defense system in the United States by the end of 2015. The bill obligates $100 million next year to plan for the site, but the project would cost billions of dollars in later years that has yet to be funded... Republicans said the site is needed to counter rising threats from Iran and North Korea, but Democrats say the military does not want the East Coast missile shield and blasted its $100 million startup cost.
Republicans tried to block debate of amendments to the defense authorization for fear that Democratic sponsored amendments like California Representative Barbara Lee's -- she represents me! -- to accelerate American withdrawal from Afghanistan might pass (as if), which prompted Massachusetts Representative James McGovern (who is also credited with the coinage "East Coast Star Wars Fantasy Base" to describe the unnecessary, unworkable, ruinously expensive, de-stabilizingly belligerent feces-eating infantile GOP proposal, which no doubt will now be funded to the tune of billions every year for all time from here on out by Democrats afraid of being called "soft on defense") to complain yesterday, reasonably enough, "The defense bill provides $100 million in start-up money for the East Coast base, and to bring it into operation by 2015 will require another projected $5 billion… Why shouldn't we have such a debate on an expensive proposal like that? Or is all the Republican talk about cost-cutting and putting our fiscal house in order as big a fantasy as this silly Star Wars proposal?" Quite so. Needless to say, when it comes to giving handouts to billionaires (and no small amount of so-called Defense spending amounts precisely to welfare for the rich) cost is never any object for Republicans. It is only when money is being invested in education for everybody or to support our most vulnerable fellow citizens, all for the good of us all, that Republicans inevitably find the costs are too high for them to tolerate. I would be remiss, by the way, given this blog's other focus, not to mention the ongoing role of futurological ideology deranging sensible deliberation on the actual costs and risks and benefits of techno-utopian missile-shield boondoggle proposals.

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