November 30, 2005
Fucking Scumbag Republicans...
Question: What is the point of a huge defecit?
Answer: Carve out the soul of the country. Kill social programs and make education unaffordable to most. The more we kill off options and the more people who are dirt fucking poor the cheaper we can exploit those people to make them die in a bullshit war aimed at doing nothing more than driving up the stockprice of dirtbag companies that sell weapons to the government.
The House deficit reduction bill, which passed by a close vote of 217—215, reduces spending on federal student loan programs by $14.3 billion over the next five years. The Senate bill, which passed by a vote of 52-47, reduces student loan spending by $9.7 billion over the same period. The bills lower subsidies to private lenders that provide student loans and increase borrowing costs for students.According to the United States Student Association, the House bill will cost the average student borrower an additional $5,800 in loan payments. On average, students currently borrow about $17,500 for college.
Both bills also reduce spending on entitlement programs and include changes to Medicaid, food stamps, farm subsidies, and other programs. However, the specifics of the bills differ substantially, and the House and Senate will have to compromise on a final version of the bill.
The House bill will decrease total spending by $50 billion, while the Senate bill will decrease spending by $36 billion. These are the first cuts to mandatory programs since 1997.
Question: What is the purpose of the war on terror?
Answer: To keep people perpetually in a state of fear against an unknown enemy so that you can exploit them.
We need to cut college loans by 20% so that we can keep defense spending growing at least 10 to 20 billion dollars a year. Fucking disgusting.
The House Armed Services Committee completed its markup of H.R. 1815, the FY’06 Defense Authorization bill, on May 19. The bill includes $441.6 billion for the Department of Defense and the nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy. This is $19.5 billion above the amount authorized for FY’05.
If we treated other people with just a morsel of respect then there would be way less war. But of course that isn't profitable for defense contractors or their shareholders.
The amount spent on national defense has increased from approximately $288.8 billion in 2000 to $420.7 billion in 2005. The 420.7 billion does not include other items such as money for the Afghan and Iraq wars ($49.1 billion for Fiscal Year 2006), or Homeland Security funding ($41.1 billion for Fiscal Year 2006), for example.)
Posted at November 30, 2005 1:05 AMAh, reading again. Well Aaron, here's a spin. My dh didn't grow up wealthy. Quite the contrary to my childhood. Most marry riches - I married into rags, but man did he look hot in those torn britches, Harley shirt, and riding that oil spewing motorcycle. But I digress...
So, off the dh goes to a state university and slaps up a nice healthy financial aid debt. Then, because we are nearly moronic, we take out more loans for his Masters in Family Pysch at a PRIVATE university. You know, b/c we wanted to hang ourselves for the next 11 years.
But LO AND BEHOLD, here's the spin (knew I'd get there, eh?)... he enlisted. Yep, didn't go in to the U.S. Armed Forces (GO ARMY!) as an officer - no, not him. He swallowed his pride and made a trade. He traded 4 years of his life ... 4 years of being a grunt's grunt in exchange for Uncle Sam paying off $40,000.00 in student loans. And no, I didn't add any add'l zeros to 'that thar' loan amount.
And then, he went and busted up his knee and somehow picked up stress hives, so he was 'medically discharged' only 2 days previous to his 4 years and now has full benefits for life for his ailments that are no longer ailments AND we are debt free from school loans.
We are no longer in the Army, but I can list with the armed forces has given me and mine.
#1. Two corrective eye surgeries for exotrophia for my middle child at ages 1 and 2.
#2. Knee surgery for my husband.
#3. Third son - oh, and I petitioned for insurance coverage of a midwife in an off-post clinic and my own choice for natural birthing, and got it ... paving the way for other mothers to make the same choice.
#4. Breast reduction (y'know, b/c after a woman breastfeeds her babies everything drops to the floor).
Let me say it again - GO ARMY!
So hey, if you want to 'screw' the gov't join the military and have them pay off your debts! Then, 4 years later you can walk away with possible lifetime VA benefits, the ability to purchase a home, the solidarity of debt freedom, and what else? Oh yes, having BEEN THERE AND DONE THAT ... the right to complain. B/C you know, it is sort of like voting ... if you don't walk it you can hardly bitch about it, right?
Y'know, just a twist.
I'm annoying, I'm sure, but still reading.
>if you don't walk it you can hardly bitch about it, right?
I don't think you have to be in the military to complain about it. I think it is easier to see and appreciate some of the shadiness after you experienced it firsthand, but empathy is all about not needing to personally experience everything to understand it.
FYI, I was in the US Navy for 5.5 years as a nuclear reactor operator on a special operations fast attack submarine. When drills came they gave me the hardest drill sets and I was on watch when the boat lost all power, when certain critical things relating to the reactor failed, when the reactor was down during a drill and another submarine was approaching and the reactor needed started fast, etc etc etc
Lots of bad stuff happened (grandpa died, sister wrongfully in jail for decades and I couldnt visit her, brother got hiv, etc etc etc) and the environment was generally depressing.
I became suicidal and could no longer handle the stress. I asked for help and basically got told to go fuck myself. So I ended up getting kicked out for drugs (something I had never done until AFTER I joining the military, got on the submarine, and became suicidally depressed for years).
They went so far as destroying the paperwork noting times I asked for help AND some of their own work records before processing me. In general I think of them as a bunch of shady spineless slimeball scumbags, IMHO.
Around the time I got in trouble over 10% of the crew on my boat was kicked out of the navy for using drugs in less than a 1 year timeframe.
There was a pattern there. At the surface it may have looked like everyone liked drugs. But if you dug deep there were other problems.
You don't know at the age of 17 how being on a submarine will affect your mind. You don't think about no sunlight for months when you sign that contract. You don't think about being drugged with paint fumes and oxygen levels being low out of specification...but hey that's just the reality of it.
It's worse for those people in Iraq. A full 1/3 of people who are in combat zones develop PTSD and don't really ever recover.
My dh counseled those that were returning with drug and alcohol addictions. That was his 'gig.' He didn't go to Iraq (you can't imagine the relief that brought), but he saw the addictions.
I CANNOT EVER IMAGINE being on a submarine. I would never survive - drugs or not. The first thing I do when I wake up is draw all the blinds and let in the light. I would literally die from lack of light.
It is incredulous that a pattern wasn't recognized - or was covered up - within your crew and the addictions that occurred.
Armed Forces do take the life of someone. Even in the Career military men, like my grandfather, there is a dark part to him that none of us can reach. He doesn't talk about it, unless it is something light. Then, you just 'did it.'
It does anger me that money is being used for the War in Iraq the way it is simply b/c I don't trust the intentions of those making the decisons anymore. I voted for Bush, i did. I couldn't stand the alternative, but I'm disappointed; terribly disappointed.
Seen Jarhead? Good flick.
