POLITICS & DONALD Annoying Orange MEGATHREAD

[Nonnel]

NATO's total budget is $2 billion, of which we pay ~20%. We could foot the whole thing and it wouldn't really matter. It's a drop in the bucket when you're considering $600 billion, (going on $700 billion now?) for military. We have more people than we need, we're buying more weapons than we need, and we're still paying to build nuclear missiles (as if we need any more than we have)
also from what i hear, there's a big disparity between the amount of money they commission and what they actually need

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[Cappytaino]

NATO's total budget is $2 billion, of which we pay ~20%.

And how many countries are in NATO exactly? This is unacceptable.



28 countries in NATO which would stand to benefit from the defense pact and only 5 of them pay the agreed-upon amount of 2% of GDP.

It's absolutely ridiculous that these countries are able to reap the benefits of membership without paying what they are obligated (and agreed) to pay.

that would probably be more relevant if gdp was proportional to the need for military spending

It's entirely relevant because it's a fair method of comparative economic strength and military spending.

It's one thing to say "Oh but look at a country like Norway that only spends $6 billion annually on their military, why do we need to spend so much" and another to realize Norway has a GDP of 370 billion USD compared to 18.5 trillion USD for the United States.

Also Norway are NATO members not paying their dues, so their defense budget is being subsidized by those that do pay the dues picking up the slack.

[Nonnel]

I'm sure NATO is as much of a strategic advantage to Iceland as it is to the United States.

[Cappytaino]

I'm sure NATO is as much of a strategic advantage to Iceland as it is to the United States.

According to Iceland themselves, they're part of NATO in lieu of maintaining a standing army. Funny how even they admit that they're using NATO for protection while not paying the requisite dues.

[Nonnel]

Looking into it, this chart is specifically about defense spending as a percentage of GDP (not money paid to keep NATO afloat,) so obviously Iceland is N/A since they don't have a standing army and we're spending more on military than we need to. So..

[Cappytaino]

Looking into it, this chart is specifically about defense spending as a percentage of GDP (not money paid to keep NATO afloat,) so obviously Iceland is N/A since they don't have a standing army and we're spending more on military than we need to. So..

I agree that the military spending is higher than it needs to be. I have high hopes for that audit currently ongoing to find out where $21 trillion in taxpayer money has disappeared to since 1990

[Nonnel]

Same here.

[Kevso]

Lol Iceland is just relaxing.

[devildogelite]

https://www.cbo.gov/publication/52156

Most of our defense budget is spent on operations & maintenance, which regardless of military size has been increasing every year.

I agree that the military spending is higher than it needs to be. I have high hopes for that audit currently ongoing to find out where $21 trillion in taxpayer money has disappeared to since 1990

All of that money is only really unaccounted for on paper.  Whatever was supposed to be purchased was most likely purchased and wound up wherever it was supposed to, just the bookkeeping for it is a mess and doesn't clearly show this.

[Drydess]

the military budget really shouldn't ever be generalized as "military budget," that just ends up neglecting many things regardless of where you stand in the political spectrum

@poll though lol no. there's every reason to do exactly the opposite of what you're talking about, so unless some great power tried to nuke us out of the blue definitely not

[Red Spy]

why would america need a large military it just doesnt make any sense????

[Deus Ex]

All of that money is only really unaccounted for on paper.  Whatever was supposed to be purchased was most likely purchased and wound up wherever it was supposed to, just the bookkeeping for it is a mess and doesn't clearly show this.

Sounds like bullstuff fam that is absolutely not an excuse

why would america need a large military it just doesnt make any sense????

for the aliens

[Kearn]

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/7qkn2o/hijab_attack_on_girl_was_a_hoax_canada/

EVERY SINGLE TIME

why do they have to have such a perpetual victim complex instead of taking responsibility for the damage their religion does to people?

[SeventhSandwich]

hey remember when beachbum, redspy, and a couple of the other conservative users pinned the Quebec shooting from a year ago on Muslims based on a hoax article, when it actually turned out to be a white guy with far-right connections?

confirmation bias is a bitch. it's important to shut down hoaxes as fast as possible, but you guys only take it as evidence of some kind of systemic issue when it isn't coming from your flock

[Red Spy]

hey remember when beachbum, redspy, and a couple of the other conservative users pinned the Quebec shooting from a year ago on Muslims based on a hoax article, when it actually turned out to be a white guy with far-right connections?

no?