It’s hard to believe this is real but apparently it is:
Trump administration officials have struggled to figure out how to increase U.S. military spending by a whopping $500 billion in their forthcoming budget, slowing the overall White House spending plan, four people familiar with the matter said.
President Donald Trump last month agreed to a roughly 50 percent funding boost sought by Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, in the White House’s annual budget proposal. The idea ran into internal criticism from several other officials, including White House budget chief Russell Vought, who warned about its potential impact on the widening federal deficit, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect internal deliberations.
Since Trump agreed to the higher number, White House aides and defense officials have run into logistical challenges surrounding where to put the money, because the amount is so large, the people said. The White House is more than two weeks behind its statutory deadline to send its budget proposal to Congress, in part because it is unclear how precisely to spend the additional $500 billion, according to the people familiar with the matter
They literally don’t know what to spend it all on. That’s how Looney this is.
I suspect they’ll end up spending it on useless military operations such as the one we’re embarking on in Iran which will end up costing billions even if no shots are ever fired. Trump won’t have his tariffs to throw around quite a freely so he’s just going to start threatening to invade any country that doesn’t do his bidding. That’s expensive.
It doesn’t matter to Trump because he’ll just lie and say growth is at 507% and inflation is negative a thousand and the country has never been richer. I do wonder how Russell Vought is explaining this. I suppose in his mind it’s all good because Trumpian chaos around the world brings us closer to Armageddon which he, as a hard core right wing Christian, sees as his ultimate goal.
If you think it’s a bit much for all these alleged deficit hawks to be going along with, it really isn’t. They were always phonies when it comes to the deficit, running up the tab whenever they’re in power — almost always led by massive military spending — and then wringing their hands over the debt when Democrats take over and try to do something for the people. This is a rather extreme version but really nothing new.
Between Trump’s police state and the military they are spending massive amounts of money. This is a grift to be sure. It’s also the hallmark of a police state.