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House GOP Unveils Budget With Trillions in Cuts to Medicaid, Food Benefits, and More (www.commondreams.org)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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House Republicans unveiled a budget blueprint proposing trillions in spending cuts over 10 years, targeting steep reductions to Medicaid and food assistance programs. The plan seeks $2 trillion in Medicaid cuts and $800 billion from SNAP. It also calls for establishing a commission to propose changes to Social Security and Medicare. Democrats criticized the proposal as pushing "cruel cuts" that will hurt access to healthcare and raise costs for many. If enacted, the budget would slash nearly $5 trillion from discretionary spending and $9 trillion from mandatory programs over a decade. However, the proposal is unlikely to become law given Democratic control of the Senate. The resolution indicates Republicans remain committed to large cuts across many public services and low-income programs.

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[+] [email protected] 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Only? The US accounts for 40% of all military spending in the world. We are at nearly 3 times second place, China, $876 billion to $290 billion. Considering the US has the most billionaires and compilation of billionaire wealth, I really don't think GDP is the great earmark you are portraying it as.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago

Subtract the “defense” costs that are paid for by other means in most of the world (healthcare, education, medical research), adjust the rest for purchasing power parity, and get back to me on that.

[+] [email protected] 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

GDP isn’t the end-all be-all for economic performance. Consider that real estate also contributes to GDP, and we have been getting some fucking expensive housing in recent years. It doesn’t equate to more money, so it’s effectively padding our GDP. All GDP does is give a rough estimation of how much a country is valued at best, and at worst it’s a padding game to show who has the biggest number.

If you want a good indicator for how well a country is doing economically, CPI is a better start than GDP - which, by the way, China is fucking decimating the US in that regard. Their reported CPI is around 100 points while the US is at around 300 points. You generally want lower CPI as it indicates inflation if it’s super high like the US.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Just a side note but Ukraine isn't a small country

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

It most certainly is. Nobody's talking about geography when they say it's a small country. They're 8th in Europe in population and 26th in GDP. That's small when repelling a Russian invasion.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

We spend 3.5% of our GDP on defense and that's actually far more than most countries. We have the 6th highest GPD to military spending ratio in the world. The countries who spend more of their GDP are relativity tiny. They amount to 11% of the total global spending on defense vs the USA's 39%.

The second largest GDP is China- they spend 1.6% of their GDP on defense. Third is Japan @ 1.1%... You get the idea.

Regarding the 2% NATO obligation- most members don't make it so it doesn't seem to be a real obligation.