Joe Lieberman Worried Social Security Hurting His Terrorist Murder Budget
America's ugliest angel of war Joe Lieberman hobbled onto the Senate floor during the debt ceiling debate today to complain about how budget reductions will affect his favorite taxpayer-funded school for disadvantaged children, the Pentagon. Lieberman frames the debate over spending cuts by explaining that we should all begin viewing Social Security and national security as two zero-sum opponents pitting all of the country's old people against all of its bombs and its torture dungeons. Which of these two things would America rather keep? "Kill Grandma or kill bin Laden's corpse over and over again," is Joe Lieberman's Final Offer to everyone. VIDEO after the jump:
"Bottom line: we can’t protect these entitlements and also have the national defense we need to protect us while we're at war against Islamist extremists," Lieberman says. Or kill two birds with one stone, and just fire the old people at the extremists, but the video cuts off before he can say that.
[ ThinkProgress ]
CT is the real 'murka of the northeast. Instead of flying over, people drive through.
Here's a fun fact: You've probably heard that the current defense budget is the highest, in constant dollars, since World War II. But it's actually higher than most of the years we were fighting World War II, as well! According to the Federal budget's historical tables, in constant FY 2000 dollars, WWII defense spending was:
1942 - 216 billion; 1943 - 526 billion; 1944 - 684 billion; 1945 775 billion
Including the "emergency" funding for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the current defense budget is at or slightly above the 1944 level. Only 1945 is more.
Now that I think about it, that fact isn't really so fun after all.