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Notes -
First off, I think increasing the US defense budget by 10% is surprisingly sane, as far as Trump ideas go. Of course, this is faint praise, given that my scale is "wrecking the global economy".
Second, while it is good to know that his administration is also cutting funds in areas of the military, you did not contest that the overall DoD budget will increase, which is the story here.
I am also kind of sorry that I don't get to see DOGE taking the chain saw to the military/defense/intelligence behemoth. But then, I did not really expect that to happen. To many MAGA jobs depend on building overpriced military toys on the taxpayers dime.
The point would be that the raise in the overall DoD budget without the additional context of the structural reorientation of the DoD is a misleading boo-outgroup story rather than the story. It is fodder to insinuate corrupt motive, as opposed to a policy shift consistent with years of bipartisan consensus that had been delayed by the middle eastern wars, and later the focus on the Ukraine conflict.
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